SURV1¥4LS 


BY 


d.  HOWARD  MOORE 


Division    IXJZL 


Section 


^ 


JAN  10  1919 

S  AVA  G  E 
SURVIVALS 


J.  HOWARD  MOORE 


Author  of  *'The  Univeral  Kinship," 
*TheNewEthics,"  "Ethics  and  Edu- 
cation," "TheLaw  of  Biogenesis, "etc. 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

19  16 


Copyright,  1916 

Bt  CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  CO. 

CHICAGO 


JOHN    F. 

PRINTER  A 

HIGGINS 

ND   BINDER 

4T«»6Bfe 

876-382    MONROE  STREET 
CHICAGO.     ILLINOIS 

. 

PUBLISHER'S  NOTE. 

The  material  in  this  book  was  given  originally 
as  lectures  in  the  Crane  Technical  High  School, 
Chicago.  The  lectures  formed  a  part  of  a  larger 
course  of  lectures  on  the  subject  of  Ethics. 

The  illustrations  were  made  by  Eoy  Olson  and 
L.  F.  Simmons. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

1.  Origin  of  Domesticated  Animals  Page 

1.  A  Sub-Course  of  Five  Lessons 9 

2.  Domesticated  and  Wild  Animals 10 

3.  The  Dog 12 

4.  The  Cat 17 

5.  The  Horse   17 

6.  The  Donkey  and  Mule 20 

7.  Cattle  21 

8.  Sheep  and  Goats 23 

9.  Swine   24 

10.  The  Reindeer 25 

11.  The  Camel  26 

12.  The  Elephant   28 

13.  Domesticated  Birds 30 

14.  Domesticated  Insects 33 

15.  Summary  and  Conclusion 35 

2.  Wild  Survivals  in  Domesticated  Animals 

1.  The  Struggle  for  Existence 38 

2.  Vestigial  Organs 40 

3.  Vestigial  Instincts  49 

4.  Wild  Survivals  in  Dogs 51 

5.  Wild  Survivals  in  Cats 54 

6.  The  Mother  Instinct 58 

7.  IMother  Love   61 

8.  Copying  the  Leader 65 

9.  The  School  of  Nature 67 

10.  A  Child  of  the  Sky 68 

11.  The  Ways  of  Chickens 70 

12.  Miracles  to  Come 73 

13.  Cliff-Dwellers  with  Wings 74 

14.  Wild  Survivals  in  Hogs 75 

15.  Other  Vestigial  Instincts 77 

3.  Tlie  Origin  of  Higher  Peoples 

1.  Purposes  of  This  Lesson 80 

2.  Where  the  English  Came  From 80 

3.  Other  Modern  Peoples 82 

4.  The  Cradle  of  Mankind 83 

5.  Changes  in  Geography 84 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS— Continued 

Page 

6.  How  Old  Is  Man? 87 

7.  The  Spread  of  Mankind 88 

8.  The  First  Men 90 

9.  How  the  Different  Races  Arose 91 

10.  Infant  and  Advanced  Races 92 

11.  Ages  of  Mankind 92 

12.  The  Occupations  of  Savages 98 

13.  The  Nature  of  Savages 100 

14.  The  Understanding  of  Savages 104 

15.  Moral  Ideas  of  Savages 109 

4.  Savage  Survivals  in  Higher  Peoples 

1.  Purpose  of  This  Sub-Course 115 

2.  Instincts   118 

3.  Habits 120 

4.  Useful  and  Vestigial  Instincts 123 

5.  Vestigial  Instincts  in  Man 126 

6.  The  Instincts  of  Fear 130 

7.  Survivals  of  Fear 133 

8.  The  Fighting  Instinct 137 

9.  The  Hunting  Instinct 144 

10.  The  Tribal  Instinct 147 

5.  Savage  Survivals  in  Higher  Peoples  (Continued) 

1.  The  Play  Instinct 152 

2.  The  Imitative  Instinct 154 

3.  The  Instinct  of  Indolence 159 

4.  The  Instinct  of  Revenge 163 

5.  The  Selfish  Instinct 168 

6.  Other  Vestigial  Instincts 170 

7.  Some  Newer  Instincts 174 

8.  Vestigial  Customs  and  Institutions 183 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Page-Heading  9 

The  Dog  Is  a  Civilized  Wolf 13 

The  Horse  and  One  of  Its  Ancestors 19 

A  Bayonet  of  the  Wild  Ox 22 

Children  of  the  Sky 23 

The  Camel's  Backbone  Is  Straight 27 

The  Jungle  Fowl 30 

The  Rock-Dove  33 

Appendix  in  Man,  Ape  and  Rat 43 

Ruins  of  Hind  Limbs  in  the  Whale 44 

Unused  Toes  of  the  Cow 45 

The  Call  of  the  Wild 54 

Exercising  Unused  Muscles 56 

The  Goose  Covers  Her  Eggs 59 

The  Stickleback  Father  Guarding  His  Nest 63 

Ducks  "Bathing"  in  a  Dry  Lot 78 

I  ""nds  and  Seas  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Eocene  Period. .  86 

The  Spread  of  Mankind 89 

Women,  Among  Savages,  Do  the  Hard  Work 100 

The  Mother  Instinct 125 

Every  Antelope  in  South  Africa  Has  to  Run  for  Its  Life 

Every  Day  or  Two 132 

The  Fear  of  Snakes  Comes  From  the  Far  Past 134 

Some  of  the  Things  in  Our  Nature  That  We  Would  Be 

Better  Off  Without 143 

Nature's  Schooling 153 

The  Bee  Does  Not  Dread  Work 162 

The  Spirit  of  Humanity 182 

Following  the  Leader 185 


PART  I. 

Origin  of  Domesticated 
Animals 

1.    A  Sub-course  of  Five  Lessons. 

This  lesson  on  the  *^  Origin  of  Domesticated 
Animals''  is  intended  to  be  a  preparation  for  les- 
son two.  And  lessons  two  and  three  are  intend- 
ed to  prepare  for  lessons  four  and  five  on  *' Sav- 
age Survivals  in  Higher  Peoples." 

The  first  three  lessons  of  this  series  are,  there- 
fore, not  directly  ethical — only  indirectly  so.  They 
are  intended  to  make  plain  lessons  four  and  five, 
which  are  ethical. 

We  study  first  the  survivals  of  wild  life  in  do- 
mesticated animals,  and  then  the  survivals  in  man. 
But  before  we  can  study  the  wild  survivals  in 
domesticated  animals,  we  must  learn  first  that  do- 
mesticated animals  were  once  wild  animals  and 


10  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

learn  somet"rTig  about    the    kind    of  lives  they 
lived. 

2.    Domesticated  and  Wild  Animals. 

All  domesticated  animals  have  come  from  wild 
animals.  Man  was  once  a  wild  animal  himself — 
before  he  had  invented  houses,  and  farms,  and 
clothes,  and  vehicles,  and  art,  and  science,  and  be- 
fore he  had  acquired  the  enterprise  to  domesticate 
other  animals. 

In  many  cases  it  is  possible  to  put  our  finger 
on  the  particular  wild  species  from  which  each 
domesticated  variety  has  come.  In  other  cases 
this  is  impossible.  This  may  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  changes  in  the  domesticated  race  have 
been  so  great  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  iden- 
tify the  ancestral  species;  or  it  may  be  because 
the  wild  part  of  the  species  has  been  exterminated 
since  domestication  began  and  the  species  exists 
now  only  in  the  captive  state.  This  last  is  true 
of  the  camels.  There  are  no  wild  camels.  All  the 
camels  there  are  in  the  world  are  associated  with 
men. 

**Wild"  is  an  adjective  which  is  applied  to 
those  races  of  beings  which  are  not  associated 
with  man.  Wild  animals  are  sometimes  thought 
of  as  being  in  an  unnatural  state.  This  is  not  true. 
It  is  the  surroundings  of  the  domesticated  animals 
and  of  man  that  are  artificial. 

Animals  are  domesticated  for  various  purposes 
— ^the  sheep  for  its  hair,  the  horse  for  its  strength 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  11 

and  speed,  the  cow  for  her  muscles  and  milk,  the 
pig  for  its  ^' bacon,"  fowls  for  their  eggs  and 
feathers,  the  dog  for  hunting  and  companionship, 
the  bee  for  its  sweets,  the  canary  for  its  song,  and 
the  goldfish  for  its  grace  and  beauty. 

Most  domesticated  animals  have  been  greatly 
changed,  both  in  body  and  mind,  during  the  period 
of  their  domestication.  These  changes  have 
been  made  in  order  to  fit  the  animals  more  per- 
fectly to  human  needs.  And  these  changes  are 
destined  to  continue  to  go  on  thru  the  ages 
to  come.  The  mammoth  apple  and  potato  have 
come  from  wild  ancestors  so  small  and  tasteless 
that  our  luxurious  palates  would  today  regard 
them  w^tli  disdain.  We  wouldn't  likely  eat  the 
wild  potato  in  the  condition  it  was  in  when  the 
Indians  began  to  cultivate  it.  We  have  too  many 
other  things  that  are  better.  But  the  Indians  ate 
it  because  their  sources  of  nourishment  at  that 
time  were  very  few. 

The  great  changes  in  domesticated  animals 
(and  plants)  have  been  brought  about  by  Selec- 
tion, that  is,  by  the  long  and  incessant  choosing 
of  the  more  suitable  for  breeding  purposes.  Farm- 
ers select  the  best  corn  and  the  largest  potatoes 
to  be  used  for  planting.  And  in  the  same  way  they 
select  for  breeding  purposes  the  sheep  with  the 
longest  and  finest  wool,  and  the  best-laying  hens. 
The  domestic  chicken  is  a  bird;  and  in  the  wild 
state  it  lays  a  nestful  of  eggs  in  the  spring  and 
hatches  them,  and  then  lays  no  more  till  the  next 


12  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

spring,  like  other  birds.  But  by  selecting  for 
breeding  purposes  those  hens  that  had  a  tendency 
to  lay  more  eggs  man  has  developed  breeds  that 
now  lay  eggs  the  year  around. 

In  the  same  way  cows  have  been  developed  to 
give  milk  for  a  year  or  two  after  the  birth  of  a 
calf,  altho  naturally,  in  the  wild  cows,  milk  is 
produced  for  only  a  short  time  after  the  calf  is 
born  and  serves  as  food  for  the  calf  until  it  is  able 
to  get  its  own  food.  By  repeated  emphasis  of  any 
peculiarity,  either  of  mind  or  body,  it  can  be  de- 
veloped in  time  to  an  extent  almost  without  limit. 
It  has  been  by  this  simple  method  of  selection  that 
*^ green  roses"  have  in  these  later  times  been  pro- 
duced, and  the  spineless  cactus,  and  seedless 
grapes,  apples,  oranges,  bananas,  and  pineapples. 
This  process  is  called  Artificial  Selection,  because 
it  is  carried  on  by  man. 

Science  teaches  us  that  it  has  been  thru  a 
similar  process  of  selection  carried  on  by  nature 
and  extending  thru  millions  of  years  that  all 
of  the  different  species  of  animals  and  plants  ex- 
isting on  the  earth  have  originated.  The  first  ani- 
mals were  the  lowest,  and  from  these,  thru 
Natural  Selection,  operating  thruout  immeasur- 
able periods  of  time,  have  arisen  all  the  higher 
animals,  including  man. 

3.    The  Dog. 

The  dog  is  probably  the  oldest  of  human  asso- 
ciates.   It  vv^as  domesticated  by  man  at  a  very 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  13 

remote  time,  long  before  history,  probably  before 
England  was  an  island,  and  when  the  long-haired 
elephants,  called  mammoths,  still  roamed  the 
plains  of  Europe. 

The  dog  was  probably  domesticated  first  as  a 
pet,  and  later  developed  into  kinds  suitable  for 
use  in  hunting,  herding,  burden-bearing  and  the 


"THE  DOG  IS  A  CIVILIZED 
WOLF" 


like.  All  savages  have  dogs.  The  dog  was  the 
chief  domesticated  animal  of  the  American  In- 
dians. Pictures  of  the  grey-hound  are  found  on 
some  of  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  showing  that  this 
particular  breed  of  dogs  had  been  already  devel- 
oped even  in  that  far  off  time. 

The  dog  is  a  civilized  wolf.  Darwin  thinks  that 
dogs  have  come  from  several  species  of  wolves  do- 
mesticated at  different  times  in  different  parts  of 
the  world. 

There  are  at  least  175  different  varieties  of  the 
domesticated  dog.  There  are  as  great  differences 
in  intelligence  and  civilization  among  the  different 
races  of  dogs  as  there  are  among  the  different 
races  of  men.  The  collies  (sheep-dogs)  and  St. 
Bernards  are  among  the  most  advanced  of  the 


14  SAVAGE  SUEYIVALS 

canine  races.  The  Eskimo  dogs,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  little  more  than  wolves  in  harness.  They 
look  like  wolves,  they  have  the  wild  nature  of 
wolves,  their  ears  stand  up  straight  Uke  those  of 
wolves,  and  their  vocal  utterances  are  more  like 
those  of  wolves  than  like  the  bark  of  ordinary 
dogs.  Wild  dogs  generally  howl  when  they  have 
anything  to  say,  while  the  domesticated  dogs  bark. 

The  Scotch  highlands  would  be  useless  for 
sheep-raising  if  it  were  not  for  the  collie.  The 
collie  is  a  Scotch  dog,  and  is  used  extensively  in 
Scotland  to  help  in  handling  the  sheep,  because  it 
is  cheaper  than  men.  A  dog  will  work  for  its 
board,  but  a  man  will  not. 

The  St.  Bernards  are  large,  beautiful  dogs, 
with  wonderful  eyes  and  faces.  They  belong 
chiefly  to  the  monks  of  Alpine  monasteries.  They 
are  famous  for  their  service  in  saving  human  life. 
One  of  these  dogs  died  some  years  ago  wearing  a 
medal  for  having  saved  22  human  lives.  All  St. 
Bernard  dogs  were  once  destroyed  by  an  aval- 
anche, except  three. 

The  bull-dog  is  noted  for  its  massive  jaws  and 
great  will.  It  was  probably  developed  in  early 
times  to  aid  in  handling  cattle,  especially  the  less 
ruly  bulls.  Man  must  have  had  a  pretty  hard 
time,  before  he  invented  fences,  in  handling  his 
cattle,  which  were  then  much  wilder  and  much 
harder  to  manage  than  now.  And  he  probably  de- 
veloped this  breed  of  dogs  with  big  strong  bodies, 
powerful  jaws  and  will,  and  fearless  natures,  to 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  15 

help  him  manage  his  half-wdld  herds.  The  fact 
that  the  bull-dog,  when  it  has  an}i;hing  to  do  with 
cattle,  goes  to  their  head  and  tries  to  get  hold  of 
their  nose  and  pull  them  down,  seems  to  bear  out 
this  theory.  The  collie  tends  to  go  to  the  rear  and 
drive,  rather  than  in  front  to  head  oif.  The  bull- 
dog is  passing  away,  because  its  purpose  has  been 
served. 

The  bull-terrier  is  a  degenerate  of  the  bull-dog. 
Its  use  as  a  household  pet  and  companion  is  not  a 
compliment  to  human  taste.  It  is  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  fox-terrier  in  sprightliness,  beauty, 
or  intelligence. 

The  turn-spit  has  short  legs  and  a  small  body, 
and  was  common  in  kitchens  before  the  introduc- 
tion of  modern  machinery.  It  was  the  motor  of 
the  tread-mill.  Man  was  pretty  short  on  power 
before  he  hitched  up  steam  and  electricity,  and  so 
he  developed  the  turn-spit  to  do  odd  jobs  for  him 
in  the  kitchen,  just  as  he  developed  the  hound  to 
catch  things  for  him  that  were  too  fleet-footed  for 
him  to  catch. 

Pointers  and  setters  have  been  developed  in  the 
last  150  or  200  years.  The  pointing  practice  is 
probably  the  exaggerated  pause  of  the  dog  before 
springing.  When  a  dog  comes  upon  anything  sud- 
denly, it  always  pauses  a  moment  for  inspection 
before  going  on.  By  selecting  for  breeding  pur- 
poses those  dogs  that  paused  the  longest,  a  kind 
of  dog  has  been  developed  that  doesn't  go  on  at 
all,  but  stands  perfectly  still  when  it  finds  some- 


16     '  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

thing  and  looks  steadily  in  the  direction  of  what 
it  has  fonnd.    "We  call  it  the  pointer. 

The  Dog  Family  is  a  group  of  flesh-eating  an- 
imals. It  includes  the  wolves,  foxes,  jackals,  and 
domesticated  dogs.  They  all  feed  on  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  other  animals. 

The  wild  dogs,  that  is,  the  wolves,  foxes,  and 
jackals,  are  by  nature  fierce,  suspicious,  and 
treacherous.  And,  whether  the  domesticated  dog 
has  been  derived  from  one  species  of  wolf  or  from 
several,  or  from  the  jackal,  or  from  some  species 
of  wild  dog  now  extinct,  its  nature  must  have  been 
originally  that  of  the  Dog  Family  in  general,  that 
is,  fierce,  suspicious,  and  treacherous. 

The  dog  has  been  completely  revolutionized  in 
its  naturje  since  its  domestication.  It  is  now  the 
most  devoted,  affectionate,  and  trustful  being  in 
the  world.  It  has  been  said  that  the  dog  is  the 
only  being  that  loves  you  more  than  he  loves  him- 
self. The  collie  watches  after  and  protects  and 
loves  the  very  beings  which  its  ancestors  fed  upon. 
No  finer  instance  of  devotion  has  ever  been  known 
in  this  world  than  that  of  Grey  Friar  ^s  Bobby,  a 
dog  which  slept  on  his  master's  grave  for  twelve 
years,  until  he  died.  A  memorial  has  been  erected 
to  this  remarkable  animal  in  the  city  of  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  lived. 

It  is  probably  not  saying  too  much  that  the  dog, 
since  its  domestication  back  somewhere  in  the  dis- 
tant centuries,  has  made  greater  progress  in  in- 
telligence and  civilization  than  any  other  animal 

\ 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  17 

on  earth,  not  even  excepting  man. 

4.  The  Cat. 

The  domesticated  cat  has  come  from  the  wild 
cat — not  the  American  wild  cat,  however,  for  the 
cat  was  domesticated  long  before  America  was 
discovered  by  the  wliite  people. 

Some  wild  cats  have  long  tails  and  some  have 
bob  tails.  The  domesticated  cat  is,  of  course, 
from  some  long-tailed  species,  probably  the  wild 
cat  of  northern  Africa. 

The  cat  has  not  been  domesticated  so  long  as 
the  dog,  and  it  has  not  been  selected  so  much  for 
its  devotion  and  intelligence.  Its  business  thru 
the  ages  has  been  to  destroy  certain  small  invad- 
ers of  human  homes,  such  as  mice,  and  incident- 
ally to  warm  the  human  heart  by  its  musical  purr. 
Notwithstanding  its  unimproved  nature,  it  is  gen- 
erally regarded  as  a  desirable  ornament  of  the  hu- 
man fireside. 

The  cat  and  dog  are  the  only  flesh-eating  an- 
imals domesticated  by  man.  The  cheetah,  a  kind 
of  leopard,  is  sometimes  used  in  hunting,  but  not 
very  successfully.  The  Romans  domesticated  the 
weasel. 
'  All  other  domesticated  animals,  besides  the  dog 
and  cat,  are  either  hoofed  animals,  birds,  fishes,  or 
insects. 

5.  The  Horse. 

In  the  long  and  arduous  journey  from  savagery 
to  civilization,  the  horse  has  borne  a  noble  and  in- 


18  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

dispensable  part  of  the  labor  of  this  world. 
Whether  in  war  or  in  peace,  the  horse  has  always 
been  an  unfailing  aid  and  friend  of  man.  The 
warriors  of  Cortez,  on  their  mail-clad  horses, 
struck  terror  to  the  Indians,  who  had  never  before 
seen  such  splendid  beings.  The  Indians  thought 
that  each  man  w^as  a  part  of  the  horse  on  which 
he  rode,  that  is,  that  horse  and  man  were  one  an- 
imal. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  there  were  horses 
in  America  when  the  Europeans  came  here.  But 
this  is  a  mistake.  The  Indians  had  no  horses,  not 
even  ponies.  The  pack  animals  of  the  Indians 
were  the  women.  The  llama  was  used  a  little  in 
South  America  as  a  burden-bearer.  The  so-called 
**wild  horses,"  which  were  rather  common  some 
years  ago  in  parts  of  Avestern  North  America, 
were  domesticated  horses  which  had  lapsed  into  a 
semi-wild  state. 

The  horse  was  probably  domesticated  in  central 
or  southern  Asia.  There  are  wild  horses  still 
found  in  some  of  the  more  inaccessible  regions  of 
central  Asia.  Wild  horses  live  in  small  herds  and 
feed  on  the  grasses  of  the  plains.  They  ^*run 
away''  when  frightened,  that  is,  they  stampede  in 
a  wild  way. 

The  horse  has  been  traced  back  in  the  rocks  to 
an  ancestor  about  the  size  of  the  fox  with  four 
toes  on  each  front  foot  and  three  behind. 

The  horse  walks  on  the  last  segment  of  its  big 
finger — on  the  nail  of  its  big  finger.    The  hoof  of 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 


19 


the  horse  is  the  best  contrivance  of  its  kind  yet 
produced  by  nature.  It  is  a  modified  nail,  or  claw. 
The  horse-shoe  was  invented  by  the  Greeks  or  Ro- 
mans about  400  A.  D. 


THE  HORSE  AND  ONE  OF  ITS  ANCESTORS 

Shetland  ponies  are  natives  of  the  Shetland  Is- 
lands. They  are  probably  degenerates,  owing  to 
the  unfavorable  conditions  on  these  small,  rocky, 
storm-swept  islands. 

The  forelock  of  the  horse  is  modern.  Wild 
horses  do  not  have  it,  and  no  prehistoric  picture 
of  the  horse  shows  a  forelock,  while  every  type  of 
existing  horse  has  one.  It  is  a  new  feature  which 
has  been  developed  during  domestication,  like  the 
bark  of  the  dog. 


20  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

6.    The  Donkey  and  the  Mule. 

The  donkey  is  a  cousin  of  the  horse.  It  belongs 
to  the  Horse  Family.  The  close  relationship  of 
the  donkey  and  the  horse  is  shown  by  their  ability 
to  interbreed. 

The  donkey  is  a  very  unplastic  animal.  It 
changes  little.  The  domesticated  donkey  is  not 
very  different  from  its  wild  ancestors,  which  still 
roam  the  desert-like  plains  of  central  Asia. 

The  donkey  is  today  out-of-date  in  most  parts 
of  the  civilized  world.  But  a  few  centuries  ago 
it  was  common.  It  is  now  used  chiefly  in  places 
where  wheels  cannot  go.  It  is  enduring,  patient, 
and  sure-footed,  but  slow.  It  is  a  ^^back  number,'' 
and  will,  in  time,  probably  join  the  buifalo  and  the 
American  Indian. 

The  7nule  is  a  cross  produced  by  the  interbreed- 
ing of  the  horse  and  donkey.    It  is  infertile. 

The  mule  combines  in  a  remarkable  manner  the 
good  qualities  of  both  of  its  parents — the  patience, 
endurance,  and  sure-footedness  of  the  donkey,  and 
the  power,  size,  and  activity  of  the  horse. 

The  mule  is  especially  adapted  to  service  in 
which  the  hardships  are  too  great  for  the  horse, 
and  in  regions  of  great  heat.  It  is  used  little  in 
England  and  northern  Europe  and  northern  Unit- 
ed States.  It  is  a  common  burden-bearer  in 
Spain,  southern  United  States,  France,  and  South 
America.  It  was  introduced  on  southern  planta- 
tions by  Washington. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  21 

The  mule  is  the  offspring  of  the  male  donkey 
and  the  female  horse.  It  has  the  voice  of  its  fa- 
ther.   It  brays  like  the  donkey. 

The  offspring  of  the  female  donkey  and  the 
male  horse  is  a  very  different  animal  from  the 
mule.  It  is  called  the  Hinney  or  Jennet.  It  neighs 
like  the  horse,  never  brays  like  the  donkey  or  mule, 
and  is  more  like  the  horse  in  general  build.  It  is 
smaller  than  the  mule.  It  is  found  to  some  extent 
in  Spain  and  elsewhere. 

7.     Cattle. 

There  are  four  principal  species  of  wild  cattle 
in  the  world,  inhabitating  respectively  North 
America,  Europe,  Southern  Africa,  and  Southern 
Asia.    They  all  belong  to  the  genus  Bos. 

The  American  wild  cattle  were  called  buffaloes, 
or  bisons.  They  once  lived  in  vast  herds  from 
Maine  to  the  Eocky  Mountains,  but  now  exist  only 
in  park  preserves  or  in  the  domesticated  state. 

The  Euro^Dean  bison  (aurochs)  was  once  plenti- 
ful, but  only  a  few  survive  at  the  present  time  in 
Kussian  preserves. 

The  Asiatic  species  of  wild  cattle  has  long  been 
domesticated  in  India.  It  is  the  ^Svater  buffalo'' 
of  the  Philippines.  It  is  still  found  wild  in  the 
jungle. 

The  African  or  Cape  buffalo  has  never  been 
domesticated.  It  is  a  savage  animal — large,  pow- 
erful, and  fearless.  It  has  horns  like  bayonets. 
It  is  more  feared  by  the  natives  than  the  lion. 


22 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


The  ancestor  of  the  domesticated  ox  is  not  well 
known.  But  it  is  generally  believed  to  be  the  Eu- 
ropean bison  (aurochs).  It  is  probable  that  man 
hunted  cattle  as  wild  animals  for  a  long  time  be- 
fore he  domesticated  them. 

The  American  bison  loves  the  grassy  plains ;  the 
European,  the  forest ;  while  the  Asiatic  and  Afri- 
can species  haunt  the  swamps  and  waters.  The 
domesticated  ox,  therefore,  was  originally  a  for- 
est animal ;  and  it  is  still  rather  fond  of  roaming 
in  the  woods. 


"BAYONET  OF  THE  WILD  OX" 


The  ox  was  formerly  used  extensively  as  a  draft 
animal.  But  at  the  present  time  cattle  are  domes- 
ticated chiefly  for  their  milk  and  flesh.  The  horse 
might  be  developed  into  a  milk-producing  animal, 
if  the  time  should  come  when  man  should  cease  to 
be  a  flesh-eating  animal. 

Mulies  are  a  hornless  breed  of  cattle  that  have 
been  developed  by  man.    Wild  cattle  need  horns. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 


23 


Horns  are  their  weapons  of  defense.  But  weapons 
of  defense  are  useless  in  human  pastures  and 
barns,  where  no  enemies  exist. 

8.    Sheep  and  Goats. 

Sheep  and  goats  are  mountaineers.  They  are 
found  in  most  continents,  usually  in  high,  inac- 
cessible mountain  regions.  They  are  inhabitants 
of  the  sky.  They  have  been  driven  up  into  these 
regions  of  the  sky  by  the  murderous  mouths  of 
the  wolves  and  bears.    Up  in  this  world  of  crags 


"CHILDREN  OF  THE  SKY" 

and  cold  they  can  leap  from  rock  to  rock  and  live 
where  the  wolf  and  bear  cannot  come. 

The  wild  ancestors  of  domesticated  sheep  and 
goats  were  not  Americans,  but  Asiatics.  Asia 
was  the  cradle  of  man  and  of  human  civilization. 
It  was  in  Asia  that  man  first  acquired  the  intelli- 
gence to  domesticate  his  fellow  beings.  And  this 
fact  accounts  for  the  long  list  of  domesticated  an- 
imals hailing  from  Asia.  In  Asia,  man  for  a  long 
time  carried  on  exclusively  the  domesticating 
business. 


24  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

Most  breeds  of  domesticated  sheep  have  been 
developed  during  the  last  few  hundred  years. 

The  goat  is  an  animal  which  has  been  developed 
in  the  hard  conditions  of  high  mountains.  That 
is  where  it  was  manufactured.  Its  ancestors  lived 
on  almost  anything  they  could  pick  up.  This  fact 
accounts  for  the  ability  of  the  domesticated  goat 
to  subsist  on  nearly  anything  it  can  find.  The 
goat  is  a  product  of  the  barren  peaks. 

Sheep  and  goats  have  never  been  selected  for 
their  intelligence,  but  for  their  hair  and  milk. 
Hence  they  have  remained  at  a  low  stage  of  men- 
tality. While  domesticated  sheep  have  finer 
fleeces,  they  probably  have  poorer  brains,  than 
their  wild  ancestors. 

9.    Swine. 

The  domesticated  pig  is  a  descendant  of  the  wild 
boar  of  Europe,  Asia  Minor,  and  North  Africa.  It 
readily  returns  to  the  wild  state.  So-called  ^Svild 
pigs ' '  are  found  in  many  lands  and  on  many  of  the 
islands  of  the  world.  They  are  pigs  that  have  es- 
caped from  domestication. 

Wild  hogs  live  in  small  droves,  and  are  very 
loyal  to  each  other.  You  might  think  to  see  hogs 
eat  that  they  have  very  little  regard  for  each  other 
— they  are  so  indelicate  and  selfish  and  self-cen- 
tered. But  you  let  one  of  them  get  into  trouble 
and  send  out  the  alarm-squeal,  and  the  whole  pack 
will  fly  to  its  defense  with  bristles  up  and  uttering 
the  most  terrifying  war-whoops.    They  will  risk 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  25 

their  very  lives  to  help  each  other  in  distress. 
Wild  hogs  live  largely  on  roots,  which  they  dig 
with  their  short,  powerful  nose,  or  snout. 

The  domesticated  swine  of  China  and  the  East 
have  probably  been  derived  from  the  wild  boar  of 
India,  a  different  species  from  the  European  wild 
boar. 

The  ears  of  wild  hogs  stand  up,  like  the  ears  of 
all  other  wild  animals,  except  the  elephant.  The 
wilted  ear  is  a  product  of  domestication. 

10.    The  Reindeer. 

^  The  word  reindeer  is  not  formed  from  the  En- 
lish  words  rein  and  deer,  ''Eeindeer''  means 
** pasture  deer.''  The  word  is  derived  from  the 
word  deer  and  the  word  reiii,  a  Lapp  word  mean- 
ing ^'pasturage.'' 

The  reindeer  inhabits  all  three  of  the  continents 
of  the  northern  hemisphere.  The  American  rein- 
deer, which  differs  slightly  from  the  reindeer  of 
the  eastern  hemisphere,  is  known  as  the  caribou. 

The  reindeer  is  domesticated  by  the  Siberians 
and  Lapdlanders,  to  whom  it  gives  milk,  flesh,  and 
draft  service.  A  prosperous  herd  of  reindeer  has 
of  late  years  been  brought  over  by  the  United 
States  government  and  established  in  Alaska.  The 
reindeer  can  attain  a  speed  of  10  miles  an  hour, 
100  miles  a  day,  hitched  to  a  sledge. 

In  summer  the  reindeer  lives  on  the  twigs  of 
trees,  especially  of  the  birch  and  willow.  In  win- 
ter it  feeds  on  the  so-called  *' reindeer  moss,''  a 


26  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

lichen  growing  plentifully  in  arctic  and  sub-arctic 

regions. 

11.    The  Camel. 

The  camel  is  a  desert  animal.  It  lives  in  the  vast 
wastes  of  northern  Africa  and  central  and  west- 
ern Asia.  It  is  no  longer  found  wild.  It  is  the 
chief  burden-bearer  of  the  deserts  of  Africa  and 
Asia. 

There  are  two  chief  kinds  of  camels — ^the  one- 
humped  or  Arabian  camel,  and  the  two-humped 
or  Bactrian  camel.  The  one-humped  camel  is  often 
called  the  dromedary,  and  is  used  largely  for  rid- 
ing. It  is  found  in  Northern  Africa  and  Arabia. 
The  two-humped  camel  is  an  Asiatic,  ranging  from 
the  Black  Sea  eastward  thru  Siberia,  Thibet, 
and  China.  There  are,  in  fact,  almost  as  many 
kinds  of  camels  as  there  are  of  horses — some  of 
them  adapted  to  the  burning  sands  of  the  tropics, 
others  to  the  snows  of  Siberia.  There  is  a  breed 
of  racing  camels  that  is  very  fleet  of  foot. 

The  camel  is  a  wonderful  being.  It  is  highly 
adapted  to  its  desert  world.  No  other  living  ani- 
mal could  take  its  place. 

Its  toes  are  padded  to  keep  it  from  sinking  into 
the  sea  of  sand  over  which  it  moves.  That  is  one 
adaptation. 

It  has  four  stomachs,  one  of  which  is  modified 
into  folds,  or  ** bottles,''  for  storing  water.  That 
is  another  adaptation. 

The  hump  on  its  back  is  a  store  of  fat — a  sort 
of  commissary  department,  or  pantry,  from  which 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  27 

it  obtains  its  nourishment  during  its  enforced 
fasts  while  on  its  marches  across  the  burning 
plains.  Many  people  believe  that  the  camel's 
backbone  is  curved  upward  in  the  middle.  This 
is  not  true.  The  backbone  of  the  camel  is  straight, 
like  that  of  the  cow  or  horse.  The  ^^hump''  is 
merely  a  store  of  fat  w^hich  it  carries  on  its  back 
to  give  it  sustenance  w^ien  it  can't  get  food  to  eat. 
This  ^^hump''  shrivels  or  enlarges  according  to 


•THE  CAMEL'S  BACKBONE 
IS  STRAIGHT" 


the  scarcity  or  plentifulness  of  food.  There  are 
certain  kinds  of  sheep  that  store  their  extra  fat 
in  their  tails. 

The  camel  has  great  endurance.  It  can  amble 
over  the  yielding  sands  with  200  pounds  on  its 
back  at  a  rate  of  5  or  6  miles  an  hour  for  15  hours 
out  of  the  24.  It  can  keep  this  up  for  a  w^eek 
without  water,  and  without  an}i:hing  to  eat  but 
thorns  and  cactuses  and  a  ball  of  barley  meal  once 
a  day.  The  camel  can  get  along  without  eating 
and  drinking  because  it  carries  its  food  on  its 
back  and  its  drink  in  one  of  its  stomachs.  The 
camel  is  not  pretty,  but  very  w^onderful. 

The  camel  is  like  the  donkey,  it  never  changes. 
It  has  been  used  from  time  immemorial,  but  is 
still  only  partially  domesticated.    It  has  the  pe- 


28  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

culiar  habit  of  expressing  anger  or  disgust  by 
^*  spitting ''  at  its  offender.  The  camel  kneels  to 
receive  its  load.  And  while  the  load  is  being  put 
on  its  back,  it  does  a  good  deal  of  groaning  and 
complaining.  If  the  load  is  too  heavy,  it  will  re- 
fuse to  rise. 

The  llama  is  a  South-American  sheep-camel 
that  is  used  as  a  pack  animal  to  some  extent.  It 
exists  only  in  the  domesticated  state. 

The  alpaca  is  a  cousin  of  the  llama.  Its  hair 
is  made  into  the  well-known  alpaca  of  commerce. 
It  was  domesticated  by  the  Indians.  Alpaca  cloth 
has  been  found  in  the  tombs  of  the  ancient  Peru- 
vians. The  alpaca  lives  in  herds  in  a  half-wild 
state  in  the  high  Andes. 

12.    The  Elephant. 

There  are  two  species  of  elephants — ElepJias 
africamis  of  Africa  and  ElepJias  indicus  of  Asia. 

The  African  elephant  has  never  been  domesti- 
cated, except  by  the  ancient  Carthaginians.  It  has 
large  ears,  tusks  in  both  sexes,  a  convex  forehead, 
and  a  fierce  disposition. 

ElepJias  indicus  has  long  been  domesticated. 
It  has  a  concave  forehead,  moderate  sized  ears, 
and  tusks  in  the  male  only. 

The  elephant  has  always  been  a  favorite  of  cap- 
tains and  princes  and  other  vain  beings  who  de- 
sire to  add  to  their  own  appearance  the  magnifi- 
cence of  this  splendid  colossus. 

The  elephant  very  seldom  breeds  in  captivity, 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  29 

and  recruits  must  be  obtained  by  fresh  captures 
from  the  jungle.  They  are  taken  by  the  use  of 
tame  elephants.  They  are  driven  into  stockades 
and  fastened  and  kept  there  till  hunger  and  fa- 
tigue overcome  them. 

The  elephant  is  used  in  India  to  handle  timbers. 
It  uses  its  proboscis,  or  trunk,  which  is  an  exag- 
gerated nose.  The  proboscis  is  a  wonderfully 
adai^tive  organ.  It  can  be  used  to  handle  saw- 
logs  or  to  pick  up  a  pin. 

Elephants  seldom  lie  down.  They  sleep  stand- 
ing up.  Cases  have  been  known  where  elephants 
have  remained  standing  even  after  they  were 
dead. 

There  is  no  animal  domesticated  by  man  that 
is  in  its  natural  disposition  so  well  adapted  for 
domestication  as  the  elephant.  It  has  taken  thou- 
sands of  years  to  make  the  dog  what  it  is.  But 
the  elephant  can  be  taken  right  out  of  the  jungle 
and  in  a  few  months  it  will  undergo  all  the  changes 
necessary  to  make  it  an  obedient,  intelligent,  and 
affectionate  servant.  Elephants  are  intelligent 
animals,  with  good  memories  and  strong  feelings 
of  affection  and  revenge.  They  remember  kind- 
ness and  injuries  a  long  time. 

Elephants  were  formerly  found  in  every  conti- 
nent, except  Australia.  The  mammoth  was  the 
European  elephant,  and  the  mastodon  lived  in 
both  North  and  South  America.  These  animals 
disappeared  from  the  earth  about  the  time  of  the 
appearance  of  the  human  species. 


30  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

The  earliest  elephants  so  far  known  lived  in 
Egypt  in  the  Eocene  age  of  geology.  They  had 
no  trunk,  but  a  long,  prehensile  nose.  Their  tusks 
were  short,  like  bear's  tusks.  They  were  about 
the  size  of  ponies. 

13.    Domesticated  Birds. 

The  scientific  name  for  the  common  domesti- 
cated fowl,  or  chicken,  is  Gallus  domesticus.    The 


"THE  JUNGLE-FOWL" 

(Male) 


name  means  the  ^domesticated  fowl.*'  The 
chicken  was  first  domesticated  in  the  Indian  re- 
gion of  Asia,  where  man  first  came  to  domesticat- 
ing consciousness.  Its  ancestor  is  believed  to  be 
the  jungle-fotvl,  still  wild  in  the  jungles  of  India. 

The  jungle-fowl  is  dark-red  in  color,  roosts  in 
low  trees,  and  nests  on  the  ground.  The  males 
are  great  fighters,  and  sing  to  the  sunrise  as  their 
descendants  do  the  world  over  today.  The  game- 
cock, with  its  reddish  color,  slim,  wiry  body,  and 
fighting  nature,  resembles  more  closely  the  wild 
ancestral  form  than  any  other  domesticated  va- 
riety, that  is,  it  is  more  nearly  in  the  ** savage'' 
state  than  other  varieties. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  31 

The  peafowl  is  also  from  southern  Asia,  where 
it  is  still  found  wild.  The  tame  bird  is  not  very 
different  from  the  wild.  The  peafowl  is  domesti- 
cated for  its  splendid  tail  feathers.  It  is  a  bird  of 
little  s}Tiipathy,  and  likes  to  be  alone. 

The  guinea-hen  is  from  Africa.  It  is  not  thor- 
oughly domesticated,  and  insists  on  leading  a  half- 
wild  life  yet.  It  is  not  found  in  domestication 
much,  except  in  the  southern  United  States. 

The  turkey  is  an  American  bird.  It  was  hunted 
by  the  Indians  with  tlieir  bows  and  arrows.  It 
was  easily  domesticated  because  of  its  feeble  flight 
and  its  instinct  to  live  in  the  same  locality.  The 
turkey  was  domesticated  by  the  Indians.  It  was 
called  the  turkey  by  the  English,  because  when  it 
w^as  first  taken  to  England  it  was  mistakenly  sup- 
posed to  have  come  from  Turkey. 

The  ostrich  is  from  Africa.  It  is  a  desert  bird. 
It  has  only  recently  been  domesticated.  It  is  do- 
mesticated for  its  unrivalled  plumes.  These 
plumes  are  the  tail  and  wing  feathers.  They  are 
much  more  beautiful  and  hmnane  articles  of  dec- 
oration than  the  feathers  of  song-birds.  The 
plumes  of  the  ostrich  are  plucked  out  or  clipped. 
There  are  extensive  ostrich  farms  in  South  Africa 
and  Southern  California.  The  ostrich  is  the  only 
domesticated  bird  that  does  not  fly  in  the  w^ild 
state. 

The  goose  is  a  descendant  of  the  Canada  wild 
goose,  a  bird  found  in  all  parts  of  the  northern 
hemisphere.     It  is  a  gray  bird.     It  haunts  the 


32  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

swamps  and  water-sides,  living  and  rearing  its 
young  among  the  reeds  and  grasses.  The  tame 
goose  retains  much  of  its  wild  nature  and  many  of 
its  wild  ways  of  acting.  It  is  domesticated  pri- 
marily for  its  feathers. 

The  domesticated  duch  is  a  Mallard.  The  wild 
duck  has  a  strong  and  peculiarly  beautiful  flight. 
It  summers  in  Greenland,  Iceland,  Lapland,  and 
Siberia,  and  winters  in  India,  Egypt,  and  the  Isth- 
mian regions  of  America. 

The  common  domesticated  swan  is  from  the 
mute  swan  of  eastern  Europe  and  western  Asia. 
It  is  spotless  white,  with  a  red  bill  and  a  black 
knob  on  the  end  of  the  bill. 

The  whistling  swan  inhabits  Iceland,  Lapland, 
and  northern  Russia.  It  has  a  coiled  windpipe, 
and  produces  whistling  or  trumpeting  tones.  It 
goes  to  the  tropics  in  winter. 

The  swans  of  the  northern  hemisphere  are  all 
white,  while  those  of  the  southern  hemisphere  are 
more  or  less  black,  the  Australian  swan  being  jet 
black.  The  black  swan  for  a  long  time  existed 
only  in  rumor  and  vague  report,  and  was  gener- 
ally supposed  to  be  an  impossibility.  It  is  now 
almost  exterminated  in  the  wild  state,  but  is  ex- 
tensively domesticated  in  Australia. 

The  canary  bird  is  from  the  Canary  Islands, 
where  it  is  found  wild.  It  is  a  common  house-bird 
all  over  the  world.  The  goldfinch  and  summer 
warbler  are  often  by  ignorant  people  called  **wild 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  33 

canaries/'  There  are  no  wild  canaries  outside  of 
their  native  islands. 

Pigeons  have  been  domesticated  three  or  four 
thousand  years.  There  are  now  perhaps  200  dif- 
ferent varieties  of  the  domesticated  pigeon — car- 
riers, tumblers,  trumpeters,  pouters,  fantails,  etc. 
All  varieties  of  the  domesticated  pigeon  have  come 


•THE  ROCK-DOVE" 


from  the  rock-dove  of  Europe.  Pigeons  mate  for 
life.  They  are  the  only  monogamous  domesticated 
birds.  They  feed  their  young  on  *  *  pigeon 's  milk, ' ' 
a  liquid  made  from  half-digested  grain  in  the  par- 
ental crop.  The  rock-dove  is  bluish  in  color,  with 
two  black  bars  on  its  wdngs.  It  is  called  the  *  *  rock- 
dove ''  because  it  makes  its  home  among  rocks. 

14.    Domesticated  Insects. 

There  are  over  a  half -million  species  of  insects 
already  known  to  science.  The  insects  form  the 
big  branch  of  the  animal  kingdom.  Only  three  or 
four  species  out  of  this  enormous  array  have  been 
domesticated  by  man.  Insects  are  too  small  and 
weak  for  burden-bearers,  and  they  are  not,  as  a 
rule,  palatable  to  man. 

The  honey -hee  was  probably  the  first  domesti- 


34  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

cated  insect.  Its  home  is  in  the  Old  World.  It 
was  not  found  originally  in  America.  The  wild 
bees  of  America  are  the  swarms  of  domesticated 
bees  that  have  escaped  to  the  wild  state.  The 
honey-bee  is  now  found  domesticated  in  all  lands 
where  flowers  bloom  and  where  the  honey-making 
season  is  long  enough  to  enable  it  to  store  suffi- 
cient sweets  to  last  thru  the  winter. 

Bees  live  on  ** bread''  and  honey.  The  honey 
is  the  nectar  which  flowers  secrete  and  present  to 
the  bee  as  compensation  for  the  bee's  services  in 
bringing  about  cross-fertilization.  The  honey  is 
sucked  up  and  swallowed  by  the  bee  and  carried 
home  in  its  crop,  and  afterwards  regurgitated  into 
the  honey  cells.  The  ** bread"  of  the  bee  is  the 
pollen,  which  it  gathers  and  carries  home  in  the 
hairy  baskets  of  its  hind  legs.  Some  flowers,  as 
the  rose,  do  not  produce  nectar  at  all,  only  pollen. 
The  fragrance  of  such  flowers  is  in  the  petals  or 
leaves.  In  the  eglantine  (sweetbrier)  the  leaves 
are  more  fragrant  than  the  flowers.  Wild  bees 
make  their  homes  in  hollow  trees  and  rock  cavi- 
ties. 

Bees  do  not  store  honey  in  the  tropics  much, 
because  of  the  abundance  of  flowers  the  year 
round. 

The  social  organization  of  the  honey-bee  is  of  a 
very  high  order,  higher  than  that  of  any  verte- 
brate animal,  not  even  excepting  man. 

The  ** silk-worm''  is  not  a  worm  at  all,  but  a 
hahy  moth. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  35 

The  silk-moth  has  long  been  domesticated.  It  is 
a  native  of  the  highlands  of  China.  And  the  Chi- 
nese domesticated  it  first.  It  is  domesticated  foi 
the  silk  spun  by  the  larva  (caterpillar)  when  it 
passes  into  the  pupa  stage  of  development.  The 
silk  is  the  couch  or  cradle  for  the  insect  during  its 
pupal  sleep. 

The  silk  is  a  liquid  in  the  glands  of  the  cater- 
pillar, and  hardens  on  exposure  to  the  air,  like  the 
silk  of  the  spider.  The  glands  open  by  a  common 
duct  near  the  mouth  of  the  larva. 

China,  Japan,  and  France  are  the  great  silk- 
producing  countries  of  the  earth.  As  many  as  ten 
million  human  beings  are  engaged  in  the  sill^  in- 
dustry. 

The  domesticated  silk-moth  has  been  in  captiv- 
ity so  long  that  it  has  become  flightless,  like  the  do- 
mesticated birds.  The  larva,  or  caterpillar,  of  the 
silk-moth  feeds  on  the  leaves  of  the  mulberry. 

The  cochineal  insect  is  a  little  red  bug  inhabit- 
ing Mexico.  It  lives  naturally  on  the  cactus.  The 
dye  (cochineal)  is  made  from  the  brilliant  bodies 
of  these  insects.  The  bodies  are  dried  and  ground 
up.  Cochineal  was  used  by  the  Indians  as  a  dye 
before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards.  It  was  long 
supposed  by  Europeans  to  be  a  seed.  The  bug  has 
been  transplanted  to  Spain  and  the  Canaries,  and 
a  large  part  of  the  world's  supply  of  cochineal 
now  comes  from  these  lands. 
15.    Summary  and  Conclusion. 

Sponges  and  oysters  are  now  **farmed''  in  many 


36  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

parts  of  the  world  much  as  horses  and  wheat  are 
farmed  in  other  parts,  and  may  in  a  sense  be  re- 
garded as  domesticated  animals.  The  sponge  and 
oyster  ^^farms'^  are  on  the  sea-floors. 

Leaving  out  sponges  and  oysters  and  the  three 
insects  which  have  just  been  mentioned,  all  of  the 
animals  that  man  has  associated  with  himself  as 
domesticated  animals  belong  to  the  back-boned 
crowd,  that  is,  are  vertebrates.  And  if  the  gold- 
fish and  turtle  are  omitted,  only  the  warm-blooded 
birds  and  mammals  are  represented  among  human 
domestics.  By  far  the  greatest  number  and  most 
important  of  these  belong  to  the  order  of  hoofed 
animals,  or  ungulates.  Excepting  the  cat  and  dog, 
all  are  primarily  vegetable  feeders.  All  of  the 
great  burden-bearing  races  are  strict  vegetarians. 

By  far  the  largest  number  of  domesticated  an- 
imals are  of  Asiatic  origin :  the  horse,  donkey,  dog, 
mule,  water-buifalo,  sheep,  goat,  camel,  elephant, 
honey-bee,  silk-moth,  chicken,  peafowl,  goose, 
duck,  swan,  and  gold-fish.  The  ox,  pigeon,  rein- 
deer, and  pig  are  from  Europe.  America  fur- 
nished the  turkey,  alpaca,  llama,  guinea-pig,  and 
cochineal  bug;  while  the  cat,  canary,  and  guinea- 
hen  are  from  Africa.  The  exceedingly  large  con- 
tribution from  Asia  is  not  due  to  the  large  size  of 
this  continent  nor  to  the  greater  variety  of  animal 
life  there,  but  to  the  fact  that  Asia  was  man 's  na- 
tive continent,  the  continent  on  which  the  human 
species  probably  originated,  the  continent,  at  any 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  37 

rate,  on  which  mankind  first  arrived  at  the  domes- 
ticating stage  of  development. 

There  are  something  like  100  species  of  animals 
and  1,000  species  of  plants  today  represented  in 
hmnan  commerce. 

These  races  of  beings  which  man  has  associated 
with  himself  are  living  beings.  They  eat  and 
drink  and  breathe,  they  suffer  and  enjoy,  repro- 
duce their  kind  and  love  their  young,  much  as  hu- 
man beings  do.  The}^  have  been  taken  from  their 
natural  surroundings  and  forced  to  adopt  ways  of 
living  that  are  often  cruel,  or  even  horrible.  There 
is  nothing  much  more  certain  than  that  men  and 
women  of  the  far  future  will  recognize  their  kin- 
ship with  these  races,  and  will  treat  them  in  an 
entirely  different  way  from  what  we  do.  As  Dar- 
win says,  *^S}^npathy  for  the  lower  animals  is  one 
of  the  noblest  virtues  with  which  man  is  endowed.'* 


PART  11. 

Wild  Survivals  in  Domesti- 
cated Animals 

1.    The  Struggle  for  Existence. 

As  a  rule,  animals  are  adapted  to  their  sur- 
roundings. They  have  the  form  and  architecture 
which  they  need  to  enable  them  to  exist.  They  fit 
their  surroundings,  as  if  they  had  been  whittled 
out  by  some  expert  to  suit  the  various  places  in 
which  they  live.  They  have  just  the  organs  they 
need,  arranged  in  just  the  way  they  should  be,  to 
carry  on  life  successfully. 

It  used  to  be  supposed  that  this  wonderful 
adaptation  of  living  beings  to  their  surroundings 
was  the  result  of  the  skill  and  benevolence  of  the 
Creator.  Animals  were  all  supposed  to  have  ex- 
isted from  the  beginning,  just  as  we  find  them  to- 
day. It  is  now  known  that  the  perfect  adaptations 
of  animals  to  their  surroundings  is  the  result  of  a 
world-wide  struggle  to  live  and  a  consequent  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  to  survive.  In  the  struggle  for 
life  most  animals  perish.  Only  the  few  survive. 
These  feAv  are  the  ones  test  fitted  to  their  sur- 
roundings. The  survival  of  the  fittest  which  has 
gone  on  for  millions  of  years  has  resulted  in  the 
production  of  species  with  natures  and  bodies  ex- 
ceedingly well  fitted  to  the  world  in  which  they 
live. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  39 

More  beings  are  born  than  can  live  on  the  earth. 
There  iir  an  over-production  of  life.  There  is  not 
enough  food  and  air  and  room  to  go  round.  It  is 
estimated  that  a  single  pair  of  house-sparrows 
would,  if  none  should  die,  produce  enough  spar- 
rows to  cover  the  state  of  Indiana  in  20  years; 
The  lobster  lays  10,000  eggs  in  a  season,  and  the 
oyster  2,000,000.  A  female  white  ant,  when  adult, 
does  nothing  but  lie  in  a  cell  and  lay  eggs.  She 
lays  80,000  eggs  a  day  for  several  months.  The 
natural  increase  of  a  single  pair  of  gypsy  moths 
would  destroy  all  the  plants  of  the  United  States 
in  eight  years.  The  eel  produces  eggs  but  once  in 
a  life-time,  but  it  produces  the  almost  incredible 
number  of  from  5  to  20  millions,  depending  on  the 
size  of  the  fish.  Certain  low  forms  of  animal  life 
reproduce  so  rapidly  that,  if  they  should  all  sur- 
vive, their  offspring  would  in  a  few  days  fill  the 
seas.  If  every  egg  of  the  codfish  should  produce 
an  adult,  a  single  pair  in  25  years  would  produce  a 
mass  of  fish  as  large  as  the  earth. 

One  result  of  this  overproduction  of  animal  life 
is  a  world-wide  struggle  for  existence.  The  earth 
is  a  battlefield.  How  it  may  be  on  other  spheres, 
we  do  not  know.  But  on  the  particular  globe  on 
which  we  have  been  allotted  to  come  into  existence 
life  is  one  mighty  tragedy.  Species  are  pushing 
and  crowding  and  murdering  each  other  in  the  ef- 
fort to  live.  And  this  pushing  and  crowding  and 
exterminating  has  gone  on  ever  since  the  begin- 
ning of  life  on  the  earth  millions  of  years  ago. 


40  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

There  are  about  a  million  species  of  animals 
known  to  science  at  the  present  time,  that  is,  there 
are  about  a  million  that  are  known  and  named. 
And  there  are  probably  a  million  more  that  are 
not  yet  catalogued.  And  it  is  estimated  that  from 
20  to  100  times  as  many  species  of  animals  have 
lived  and  perished  entirely  from  the  earth  as  to- 
day survive — 20  to  100  times  as  many  species^  re- 
member, not  individuals.  The  rock  masses  over 
which  we  walk  every  day  are  vast  cemeteries  in 
which  lie  all  that  is  left  of  immeasurable  billions 
who  once  lived,  breathed,  and  had  their  existence 
as  we  do  now.  These  facts  give  a  little  idea  of 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  struggle  which  has 
gone  on  here  on  the  earth,  and  whose  story  lies 
locked  forever  in  the  fossil-bearing  rocks. 

2.    Vestigial  Organs. 

Vestigial  means  ** remnant,"  or  *Hrace;''  and 
vestigial  organs  means  ** remnant  organs,"  or- 
gans which  have  gone  out  of  use  and  which  are  in 
the  act  of  passing  away  as  a  result. 

In  the  struggle  for  life  species  are  continually 
displacing  each  other,  continually  driving  each 
other  out  of  one  set  of  surroundings  into  another 
set.  When  a  species  is  driven  out  of  one  set  of 
surroundings  to  which  it  is  fitted  into  another  set 
different  from  the  first,  it  is  very  likely  to  have 
some  organs  that  are  left  over  and  not  needed  in 
the  new  environment.  On  the  other  hand,  it  will 
probably  need  some  organs  which  it  does  not  have. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  41 

Now,  it  is  possible  for  it  to  make  over  an  organ 
which  it  does  not  need  into  one  that  it  does  need, 
somewhat  as  our  mothers  used  to  transform  a 
coat  which  we  did  not  need  into  a  waistcoat  or  a 
pair  of  trousers  which  we  did  need. 

The  wings  of  birds  were  formed  in  this  way  out 
of  the  fore  legs  of  lizards.  Birds  have  been  de- 
veloped from  lizard-like  reptiles.  And  in  the 
transformation  of  the  scaly  lizard  into  the  feath- 
ered bird  the  fore  legs  of  the  lizard  went  to  form 
the  bird^s  wings.  The  bird's  wing  has  the  same 
general  architecture  as  the  lizard's  fore  leg;  hu- 
merus, ulna  and  radius,  carpal  bones,  and  three 
series  of  metacarpal  bones.  Two  of  the  five  toes 
of  the  lizard  have  been  lost  in  the  bird's  wing. 

But  the  transformation  of  superfluous  organs 
into  useful  organs  is  the  exception.  As  a  rule,  or- 
gans that  are  not  needed  go  to  waste. 

Now,  it  is  a  law  that  when  organs  are  not  used 
they  tend  to  disappear.  Organs  that  do  nothing 
are  not  nourished,  and  hence  tend  to  fade  away. 
Then,  too,  organs  that  are  not  used  are  not  em- 
phasized by  Natural  Selection.  And  if  their  use- 
lessness  continues  long  enough,  they  will  not  only 
shrivel  and  decay,  but  will  finally  pass  out  of  ex- 
istence entirely.  There  are  almost  numberless 
examples  of  extinction  of  this  kind  known  to  biolo- 
gists. The  disappearance  of  legs  in  snakes  is  an 
instance.  Snakes  have  come  from  lizards,  and 
originally  walked  on  four  legs.  But  in  the  strug- 
gle for  life  they  have  found  it  of  advantage  to 


42  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

adopt  a  wriggling  or  creeping  style  of  locomotion. 
The  legs  went  out  of  use  as  a  result.  And  this 
change  in  the  life  of  these  reptiles  took  place  so 
long  ago  that  in  all  but  a  few  cases  every  vestige 
of  limbs  has  disappeared. 

But  there  are  many  instances  in  the  animal 
kingdom  where  discarded  organs  still  survive  in  a 
dwindling  and  drying-up  condition.  These  or- 
gans, in  the  ancestors  of  the  animals  now  possess- 
ing them,  were  fully  developed  and  useful,  but,  be- 
cause of  changes  in  habits  or  conditions  of  living, 
they  are  now  of  no  further  use,  and  are  gradually 
dying  out.  Such  organs  are  called  Vestigial  Or- 
gans. 

Vestigial  organs  are  simply  organs  without  a 
job.  They  are  organs  which  haven't  an}i:hing  to 
do,  and  which  are  suffering  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  long  idleness.  The  amount  of  degen- 
eration which  any  organ  has  undergone  depends 
on  the  length  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  it  be- 
came useless.  Vestigial  organs  are  departments 
which  have  gone  out  of  use,  but  which  have  not  yet 
gone  out  of  existence. 

There  are  hundreds  of  vestigial  organs  m  the 
bodies  of  men  and  other  animals.  All  the  higher 
species  of  animals  have  them.  One  of  the  best 
known  examples  is  the  vermiform  appendix  in  the 
human  body — ^the  useless  organ  which  is  removed 
in  cases  of  appendicitis.  This  organ  in  many  of 
the  lower  animals  is  a  regular  part  of  the  diges- 
tive   system.     Food   enters   it,   and   it    secretes 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 


43 


chemicals  and  absorbs  nourishment  into  the  blood, 
like  the  stomach  and  intestines.  In  the  rat  the 
*^ appendix''  is  as  large  as  the  stomach,  and  forms 
a  sort  of  second  stomach,  where  the  food  pauses 
and  undergoes  special  treatment.  But  in  man,  for 
some  reason  (maybe  because  of  his  adoption  of 
the  erect  position),  this  organ  is  of  no  use.  Food 
never  enters  it,  except  by  accident;  and  it  is  so 


"APPENDIX"  IN  MAN,  APE  AND  RAT 

weak  and  ill-nourished  that  it  is  the  seat  of  fre- 
quent disease.  It  is  destined  in  time  to  pass  away 
entirely,  like  the  legs  of  snakes  and  the  claws  on 
the  wings  of  birds. 

Other  instances  in  man  are  the  ear  muscles,  the 
tail  and  tail  muscles,  the  so-called  *Svisdom 
teeth,''  and  the  general  hairy  covering  of  the 
body.  The  eyes  in  cave  fishes  and  in  moles  are 
vestigial,  because  these  animals  live  in  darkness 
where  eyes  are  useless.  They  have  eyes,  but  are 
blind.  The  eyes  are  mere  remnants.  Horns  in  do- 
mesticated cattle  are  vestigial.  In  wild  cattle 
horns  are  weapons  of  defense.    And  in  a  world  of 


44  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

wolves  and  bears  wild  cattle  wouldn't  last  long 
without  these  bayonets  on  their  heads.  But  in  hu- 
man pastures  cattle  have  no  use  for  bayonets. 
They  have  no  enemies.  And  men  often  cut  these 
useless  parts  off. 

The  hind  legs  of  whales  are  vestigial.  The 
whale  was  once  a  land  animal  and  walked  on  four 
legs.  But  in  the  struggle  for  life  it  has  been 
pushed  off  into  the  sea,  and  taken  on  a  fish-like 


"RUINS  OF  HIND  LIMBS  IN  THE  WHALE" 

shape  in  adaptation  to  its  surroundings.  It  has 
its  front  legs  yet,  but  its  hind  legs  have  almost  dis- 
appeared. There  are  only  the  ruins  left.  They 
are  the  two  small  bones  that  are  seen  hanging 
down  from  the  backbone  of  museum  specimens  in 
the  place  where  hind  limbs  would  be  naturally  if 
it  had  any. 

Many  mammals  have  vestigial  toes.  The  cow 
has  two  just  back  of  the  two  useful  toes.  So  has 
the  sheep,  pig,  and  deer.  One  toe  on  the  dog's 
front  foot  is  vestigial,  never  touching  the  ground. 
The  original  mammals  (the  species  from  which  all 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 


45 


the  different  kinds  of  mammals  have  come)  had 
five  toes  on  each  foot.  Many  mammals  still  retain 
this  five-fingered  style  of  foot.  Man  does.  So 
do  the  monkey  and  the  elephant.    But  many  spe- 


"UNUSED  TOES  OF  THE  COW! 


cies  have  lost  one  or  more  toes  from  each  foot. 
The  hippopotamus  has  lost  one  toe  from  each  foot 
and  has  four  left.  The  rhinoceros  has  lost  two, 
and  has  three  left.  A  large  number  of  species, 
like  the  cow,  have  lost  three,  and  have  two  left. 
And  the  horse  has  lost  four  and  has  only  one  left. 
The  horse  walks  on  its  big  finger.    In  all  of  these 


46  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

species  there  still  exist  remnants  of  these  lost 
toes. 

The  *^  glass-snake ''  looks  very  much  like  a 
cousin  of  the  common  garter  snake.  But  it  is  not 
a  snake  at  all.  It  is  a  lizard.  And  it  is  so  classed 
in  all  the  books. 

Snakes  are  limbless  lizards.  When  we  find  a 
lizard  without  legs,  we  call  it  a  snake.  And  when 
we  find  a  snake  with  legs,  we  call  it  a  lizard.  The 
** glass-snake''  is  a  lizard  because  it  has  four  legs. 
But  its  legs  are  not  visible.  They  are  internal. 
The  ** glass-snake''  is  a  lizard  on  the  way  to  be- 
coming a  snake.  We  catch  it  in  the  act.  It  is  a 
connecting  link  between  these  two  orders  of  rep- 
tiles. The  legs  have  gone  out  of  use,  but  not  long 
enough  ago  for  them  to  have  passed  out  of  exist- 
ence. They  are  vestigial.  In  the  bodies  of  some 
snakes,  as  the  pythons  and  constrictors,  there  are 
little  clawed  remnants  of  hind  limbs. 

Snakes  have  only  one  lung.  They  have  come 
from  ancestors  with  two  lungs,  but  their  body  is 
so  narrow  that  there  is  not  room  for  two  lungs 
side  by  side,  so  one  lung  has  been  abandoned,  and 
the  other  one  has  become  larger  by  extending  out 
along  the  body.  The  abandoned  lung  still  exists, 
but  it  is  a  mere  unused  remnant. 

The  right  ovary  of  birds  has  become  atrophied 
in  a  similar  way,  all  of  the  eggs  of  birds  being  pro- 
duced by  the  left  ovary.  The  ovary  is  the  egg- 
producing  organ  of  animals.  In  nearly  all  animals 
there  are  two  ovaries,  just  as  there  are  two  kid- 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  47 

neys  and  two  lungs.  But  in  birds,  for  some  rea- 
son, the  right  ovaiy  does  nothing,  and  has  shriv- 
eled to  a  mere  remnant. 

In  man  and  most  other  vertebrate  animals  there 
are  two  bones  in  the  leg  from  the  knee  to  the  ankle 
— the  tibia  and  the  fibula.  In  birds  and  in  some 
manmials  there  is  but  one  bone  (tibia),  the  fibula 
being  represented  by  a  mere  splint  extending 
down  pai-t  way  from  the  knee.  You  have  prob- 
ably seen  this  splint  without  recognizing  it  in  the 
leg  of  the  chicken.  The  big  bone  in  the  chicken's 
leg  is  the  tibia ;  the  splint  is  the  vestigial  fibula. 

Insects  ordinarily  have  two  pairs  of  wings.  But 
flies  have  only  one  pair,  the  hind  pair  being  repre- 
sented by  a  couple  of  knobs.  In  other  species  of 
insects  the  front  wings  are  rudimentary.  The 
male  cockroach  has  two  pairs  of  wings,  and  occa- 
sionally uses  them  in  flying.  But  the  female  is 
flightless,  the  wings  being  rudimentary.  The  ovar- 
ies are  vestigial  in  the  working  class  of  bees  and 
ants.  In  the  cow  there  are  two  teats  that  are  rudi- 
mentary and  four  that  produce  milk.  The  rudi- 
mentary teats  occasionally  }deld  milk.  In  one 
breed  of  Chinese  sheep  the  ears  are  mere  vestiges, 
and  in  another  breed  the  tail  has  dwindled  to  **a 
little  button  smothered  in  fat.''  In  tailless  dogs 
and  cats  there  is  a  rudimentary  stump.  In  some 
breeds  of  chickens  the  comb  and  wattles  are  rudi- 
mentary; and  in  the  Cochin-China  the  spur  has 
nearly  disappeared.  In  the  hornless  breeds  of 
sheep  and  cattle  tiny  knobs  often  grow  out  where 


48  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

horns  would  naturally  be;  these  are  sometimes 
shed  and  grow  again. 

In  many  plants  the  petals  and  other  parts  of  the 
flower  are  rudimentary.  The  purpose  of  the  pet- 
als is  to  advertise  the  flower  to  insects  by  bright 
displays  of  color.  In  some  flowers  this  is  done  by 
the  stamens,  while  in  others  (the  poinsettia,  for  in- 
stance) this  advertising  business  has  been  taken 
over  by  the  leaves  adjacent  to  the  floWer.  In  the 
dandelion  all  of  the  outer  florets  have  vestigial 
pistils.  In  some  varieties  of  the  cultivated  gourd, 
which  no  longer  lead  the  climbing  life,  the  tendrils 
are  rudimentary. 

Parasitic  animals  and  plants  are  commonly 
much  degenerated,  having  abandoned  entirely 
many  of  the  organs  which  they  had  when  they  led 
a  free  and  independent  existence.  Such  organisms 
are,  as  a  result,  nearly  always  rich  in  ruins.  The 
narwhal  is  a  kind  of  whale  that  lives  in  the  far 
north.  It  has  only  two  teeth.  They  grow  straight 
out  in  front.  One  of  them  grows  to  be  six  or  eight 
feet  long  and  is  used  in  spearing  its  enemies  and 
in  breaking  holes  in  the  ice.  The  other  one  is  ves- 
tigial, never  projecting  beyond  the  skull.  In  the 
pouched  mice  of  Australia,  the  young  are  no 
longer  carried  in  the  pouch  and  the  pouch  has 
degenerated  to  a  mere  fold  of  skin  on  the  abdo- 
men. 

The  so-called  ** wisdom  teeth"  in  man  are  teeth 
which  are  in  the  act  of  passing  out  of  existence. 
They  appear  late  in  life  and  in  many  persons  do 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  49 

not  appear  at  all.  There  is  a  renmant  of  a  *Hhird 
eye-lid*^  in  many  animals  at  the  inner  corner  of 
the  eye.  Man  has  this  remnant,  in  common  with 
many  other  animals.  In  birds,  turtles,  and  other 
animals  this  third  lid  of  the  eye  is  in  full  use.  It 
is  the  thin  membrance  that  is  pulled  over  the  eye, 
often  when  the  two  ordinary  eye-lids  are  open.  In 
man  and  the  man-like  apes,  the  tail  is  vestigial, 
consisting  of  only  three  or  four  vertebrae  much 
grown  together.  Before  birth  in  all  of  these  ani- 
mals the  tail  is  long  and  has  muscles  for  wagging 
it.  The  bird's  tail  is  also  a  mere  remnant  of  what 
it  once  was.  The  oldest  birds  found  fossil  in  the 
rocks  had  long  tails  composed  of  twenty  verte- 
brae. 

Vestigial  structures  are  found  everywhere. 
They  are  by-products  of  all  organic  evolution. 
There  are  vestigial  instincts  in  the  minds  of  men 
and  other  animals,  and  vestigial  parts  in  all  hu- 
man laws,  customs,  and  institutions.  Our  politi- 
cal, industrial,  religious,  educational,  and  legal  in- 
stitutions are  full  of  vestigial  features.  This  is  a 
big  subject.  And  if  you  will  only  get  the  key  I  am 
trying  to  give  to  you,  you  will  be  able  to  under- 
stand many  things  that  are  now  mysteries  to  you. 

3.    Vestigial  Instincts. 

Useless  instincts  survive  in  the  minds  of  men 
and  other  animals  for  the  same  reason  exactly  as 
useless  organs  survive  in  their  bodies.  Living  be- 
ings are,  as  a  rule,  fitted  to  their  surroundings, 


50  SAVAGE  S  QRVIVALS 

not  only  in  form  and  structure,  but  also  in  their 
natures  and  ways  of  acting.  Animals  have  not 
only  the  organs  and  parts  in  their  bodies  which 
they  need  in  order  to  enable  them  to  live,  but  they 
have  also  the  instincts  to  drive  them  to  do  the 
things  they  need  to  do  in  order  to  enable  them  to 
live  successfully.  Every  being  has  a  certain  set 
of  urges  in  its  nature  pushing  it  to  do  things,  and 
these  urges  are  generally  useful.  But  when  a 
species  in  the  struggle  for  life  is  driven  out  of  one 
set  of  surroundings  into  another  set  different  from 
the  first,  it  is  likely  to  have  some  instincts  and 
w^ays  of  acting  that  are  not  needed  in  the  new 
environment.  These  useless  instincts  are  called 
Vestigial  Instincts. 

Vestigial  instincts  are  merely  instincts  w^hich 
have  been  thrown  out  of  employment  by  changes 
in  conditions  imposed  by  the  struggle  for  life.  Men 
and  other  animals  have  many  ways  of  acting  that 
are  useless,  just  as  they  have  many  organs  that 
are  useless.  These  ways  of  acting  survive  wholly 
thru  momentum  acquired  in  times  gone  by.  Like 
the  vermiform  appendix  and  the  eyes  of  cave 
fishes,  they  have  gone  out  of  use,  but  have  not  yet 
gone  out  of  existence. 

Domesticated  animals  have  been  subjected  to 
very  great  changes  in  surroundings,  and  they 
have,  for  this  reason,  an  unusually  large  number  of 
instincts  that  are  useless.  These  instincts  have 
been  imported.  They  can  be  understood  only  by 
reference  to  the  wild  conditions  in  the  midst  of 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  51 

which  they  evolved.  They  are  survivals,  which  the 
centuries  of  human  selection  have  not  been  able 
to  iron  out.  In  the  wild  life  among  the  forests, 
mountains,  and  prairies,  surrounded  by  enemies 
and  pursued  by  wolfish  wants,  these  instincts  were 
useful  to  the  individual  and  the  species.  But  in 
the  artificial  conditions  created  by  man,  they  are 
not  only  useless,  but  often  even  injurious. 

This  lesson  treats  chiefly  of  the  vestigial  in- 
stincts of  domesticated  animals.  The  vestigial  in- 
stincts of  man  will  be  taken  up  in  lessons  four  and 
five. 

4.    Wild  Survivals  in  Dogs. 

I  will  mention  four  vestigial  instincts  found  in 
dogs,  namely,  the  hunting  instinct,  the  ''sheep 
killing '^  instinct,  the  instinct  to  turn  round  and 
round  before  lying  down,  and  the  howling  instinct. 

Dogs  hunt,  even  when  filled  with  food.  Take 
the  gentlest  collie  for  a  walk.  It  will  not  follow 
behind,  nor  walk  by  your  side.  It  will  be  nosing 
about  here  and  there  and  scouring  the  thickets 
and  bank-sides  to  see  what  it  can  find.  And  if  it 
finds  something  it  will  iTin  it  down  if  possible  and 
take  its  life.    A  lamb  or  a  calf  will  not  do  this. 

The  dog  is  a  made-over  wolf.  Its  ancestors  lived 
on  rabbits,  birds,  sheep,  and  other  animals,  which 
they  hunted  doAvn  and  slew  with  their  teeth.  But 
the  dog  eats  out  of  a  bowl.  The  dog  hunts  because 
its  ancestors  were  hunters.  It  hunts  in  order  to 
exercise  an  instinct  which  is  unprovided  for  in  its 


52  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

peaceful  life  among  men.  The  hunting  instinct 
in  dogs  is  an  instinct  which  has  gone  out  of  use 
(except  in  dogs  used  for  hunting)  but  which  has 
not  yet  gone  out  of  existence. 

The  collie  is  the  dog  used  in  herding  and  hand- 
ling sheep.  The  collie  has  been  so  changed  since 
its  association  with  man  that  it  ordinarily  defends 
and  loves  the  sheep  in  its  charge.  But  once  in  a 
while  this  gentle  being  is  liable  to  go  on  a  spree 
of  ^  ^  sheep  killing. ' '  It  does  not  eat  its  victims  nor 
drink  their  blood.  It  simply  cuts  the  big  blood 
vessels  of  the  neck,  and  leaves  its  victim  to  bleed 
to  death.  The  collie  does  not  kill  because  it  is  hun- 
gry. It  kills  for  exercise.  It  kills  because  the 
wheels  of  its  nature  have  gone  round  in  a  cer- 
tain way  so  long  that  it  can't  stop  them.  The 
impulse  to  kill,  so  strong  in  the  wolf,  has  become 
w^eak  in  the  collie  from  long  disuse.  But  occasion- 
ally this  old  instinct  mounts  to  the  high  places 
in  the  nature  of  this  canine,  and  for  the  time  being 
it  is  a  wolf  again. 

If  you  will  watch  a  dog  when  it  starts  to  lie 
down,  you  will  see  it  go  thru  a  performance 
which  has  survived  from  the  time  when,  as  a  wild 
creature,  it  used  to  make  its  bed  among  the 
grasses.  The  dog  does  not  lie  right  dowTi  without 
any  preliminaries.  It  turns  round  one  or  more 
times  in  the  place  where  it  is  going  to  lie  before 
actually  lying  down.  Darwin  says  he  has  seen  a 
dog  turn  round  twenty  times  before  finally  set- 
tling doA\Ti  in  a  reclining  position.    Darwin  thinks 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  53 

that  this  performance  is  a  survival  of  the  old  bed- 
making  process  of  the  wolf.  It  is  the  old  process 
of  tramping  down  the  grass  to  make  a  place  to  lie 
in.  This  performance  was  useful  when  the  dog 
made  its  bed  on  the  prairies,  but  it  is  a  mere  waste 
of  time  to  a  dog  lying  down  on  a  rug  or  a  floor. 

Dogs  hark  as  a  general  thing.  But  occasionally 
they  express  themselves  in  a  strange,  hair-raising 
lioivl.  The  ''bark"  is  a  product  of  domestication. 
Wolves  howl.  A  wolf  will  get  up  on  a  hill  and  give 
out  a  long,  loud  hoWl,  and  another,  miles  away, 
will  answer.  They  find  each  other  in  this  way. 
And  once  in  a  while  the  dog  will  drop  into  this  old 
method  of  signalling.  I  used  to  hear  this  howl 
years  ago  on  the  prairies  of  Kansas,  when  the 
coyotes  called  from  the  hills  at  night.  Nell  was 
our  house-dog  and  friend.  And  ordinarily  her 
voice  was  as  soft  as  rippling  waters.  But  when 
she  heard  the  coyotes  at  night,  she  would  stop 
barking  sometimes  and  express  herself  in  a  loud, 
prolonged  howl.  It  was  so  unearthly  and  so  en- 
tirely different  from  her  usual  utterances  that  it 
always  seemed  surprising  that  she  could  ever  be 
the  author  of  it.  It  ivas  the  call  of  the  wild.  Long 
ago  she  and  her  associates  were  accustomed  to 
megaphone  to  each  other  in  this  way.  And  her 
machinery,  altho  weathered  by  ages  of  domes- 
tication, had  not  forgotten  the  ways  of  the  old, 
wild,  long-vanished  life. 

Superstitious  people  sometimes  account  for 
these  bowlings  of  the  dog  by  supposing  that  they 


54 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


foretell  death  or  some  other  calamity  to  the  house- 
hold. People  who  account  for  this  instinct  in  this 
way  are  themselves  showing  a  survival  of  the  past 
— a  survival  of  pre- scientific  times  When  men 
everywhere  interpreted  things  by  signs  and  omens. 
A  few  hundred  years  ago  there  was  no  such  thing 


•THE  CALL  OF  THE  WILD' 


as  chemistry  or  physics  or  science  generally,  such 
as  we  know  today.  Such  a  thing  as  natural  law 
operating  everyAvhere  was  not  dreamed  of.  In 
those  times  men  accounted  for  things  by  signs  and 
dreams  and  omens.  And  a  good  deal  of  this  old, 
pre-scientific  way  of  thinking  still  survives  in  all 
higher  peoples. 

5.    Wild  Survivals  in  Cats. 

The  domesticated  cat  is  from  the  wild  cat.    And, 
if  you  will  watch  cats  about  your  homes,  you  will 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  55 

see  many  things  that  go  back  to  the  old,  wild  life 
which  they  have  left  behind. 

Dogs  chase  their  prey.  This  is  true  of  the  whole 
Dog  Family — wolves,  foxes,  and  jackals,  as  well 
as  domesticated  dogs.  The  members  of  the  Cat 
Family  get  their  prey  in  a  different  way.  They 
slip  up  on  their  prey  until  they  are  near  enough, 
and  then  they  leap  on  it.  All  the  Cats  do  this— 
lions,  tigers,  leopards,  wild  cats,  and  domesticated 
cats.  The  Cats  hunt  by  stealth ;  the  Dogs  by  fleet- 
ness  largely. 

But  the  domesticated  cat  eats  out  of  a  bowl, 
like  tlie  dog.  Many  of  them  never  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  catch  anything  oftener  than  once  a 
month  probably.  But  the  instinct  to  catch  things 
in  the  old  way  still  survives  in  domesticated  cats. 
And  often  you  will  see  tliem  making  opportunities 
of  their  own  to  satisfy  the  instinct  to  catch  some- 
thing. They  will  creep  along  the  ground  a  little 
distance,  and  then  leap,  as  if  they  were  catching 
something.  Maybe  it  is  a  grasshopper.  Maybe  it 
is  a  fly.  Maybe  it  is  nothing.  They  are  merely 
giving  an  old,  unexercised  instinct  an  airing. 

The  practice  the  cat  has  of  going  up  to  a  tree 
or  post  and  scratching  at  it  for  a  few  moments  is 
probably  an  exercise  which  it  goes  thru  with 
in  order  to  relieve  uneasiness  in  the  muscles  ot  its 
feet  and  toes.  The  wild  cat  climbs  trees  a  good 
deal,  and  catches  and  holds  things  with  its  claws. 
The  cat's  claws  are  different  from  the  dog's  claws. 
They  are  retractile,  that  is,  movable.    They  can  be 


56 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


pulled  back  into  the  foot  and  then  extended.  These 
movements  are  made  by  muscles  which  no  doubt 
get  uneasy  and  *  Hired''  from  long  idleness,  just 
as  we  get  *  Hired"  or  un^easy  on  rainy  days  some- 
times when  we  are  kept  indoors  all  day.  When 
the  cat  scratches  a  tree  it  is  exercising  muscles 
which  in  its  ancestors  were  used  daily  in  hunting 


•EXERCISING  UNUSED  MUSCLES' 


and  tree  climbing,  but  which  are,  to  some  extent, 
vestigial  in  domesticated  cats. 

There  is  one  difference  between  the  psychology 
of  the  dog  and  that  of  the  cat  which  may  be  men- 
tioned here. 

It  is  the  nature  of  the  dog  to  become  attached 
to  persons.  When  the  family  moves,  the  dog 
moves  too.  The  dog's  home  is  where  his  master 
is.  The  dog  will  follow  a  handful  of  rags  wrapped 
around  a  beggar,  day  after  day,  thru  heat  and 
cold  and  starvation,  as  cheerfully  as  he  will  fol- 
low a  king.  The  devotion  of  the  dog  to  man  is  one 
of  the  divinest  things  in  this  world.    And  there 


DOMESTICATED  AXniALS  57 

are  few  more   aff  .   :5    than   that  of  a 

*'lost"  dog.    The  dog  wants  to  hdong  to  same- 

body. 

The  cat  becomes  attached  to  places  more.  Its 
affection  and  loyalty  are  lavished  on  localities.  It 
has  a  strong  homing  instinct.  And  it  has  a  sense 
which  men  do  not  have  which  guides  it  almost  un- 
erringly back  to  its  home.  Cats  may  be  carried 
away  for  miles,  and  carried  in  such  a  way  that 
they  cannot  see  anything  on  the  way  to  guide  them 
in  returning,  but  when  they  are  released  they  will 
find  their  way  back  in  the  most  surprising  manner. 
Dogs  will  do  this  some,  too.  Cats  are  almost  in- 
different to  i)ersons,  but  they  cling  to  their  native 
haunts  as  they  cling  to  life. 

The  homing  instinct  is  still  more  highly  devel- 
oped in  the  homing  pigeons.  The  homing  pigeon 
has  been  carried  a  thousand  miles  away  from 
home,  but  the  sense  of  direction  is  so  unerring  in 
these  birds  and  the  longing  for  their  home  so 
strong  that  after  a  few  circles  on  being  released 
they  will  start  on  tireless  wings  for  their  native 
cote. 

Wild  animals  do  not  rove  about  the  woild  as 
they  are  generally  supposed  to  do.  They  live  for 
the  most  part  in  localities.  They  learn  the  ins  and 
outs  of  a  locality  from  their  parents  and  asso- 
ciates, and  are  much  safer  in  these  familiar  sur- 
roundings than  they  would  be  wandering  into  new 
and  unknown  regions.  The  homing  instinct  is  use- 
ful to  all  animals  that  possess  it  naturally — to 


58  SAVAGE  SUKYIVALS 

ants  and  birds  as  well  as  to  cats.  It  is  not  useful 
to  a  cat  that  comes  into  existence  in  a  home  that 
has  cats  for  export. 

The  dog's  ancestors  were  wanderers  much  more 
than  the  cat's  were.  And  this  is  one  reason  for 
the  cat's  greater  regard  for  locality.  But  the  dog's 
great  devotion  to  man  comes  from  its  long  domes- 
tication, and  from  the  fact  that  it  has  always  been 
selected  for  its  devotion  and  intelligence  much 
more  than  the  cat.  The  dog  more  than  any  other 
animal  has  been  the  companion  of  man,  while  the 
cat  has  been  kept  primarily  to  hunt  mice  and  rats 
and  other  small  animals  that  tend  to  invade  hu- 
man homes. 

6.    The  Mother  Instinct. 

Infancy  is  the  time  of  the  greatest  mortality  in 
all  animals,  including  man.  It  is  the  time  when 
living  beings  are  weakest,  and  least  able  to  defend 
themselves  against  the  many  enemies  that  lie  in 
wait  for  them.  Hence,  in  many  species  of  the 
higher  animals,  there  has  been  developed,  espe- 
cially in  the  females,  a  strong  inclination  to  care 
for  and  defend  their  young.  Those  species  have 
survived  that  have  had  this  instinct  for  child  pres- 
ervation most  highly  developed.  jSTo  species  can 
live  long  that  does  not  save  its  young. 

The  domestic  cow  hides  her  new-born  calf.  This 
is  useless  in  human  pastures.  But  in  the  danger- 
filled  life  of  the  past,  where  a  hundred  hungry 
mouths  awaited  every  calf  that  came  into  the 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  59 

world,  this  practice  of  the  mother  of  retiring  to 
some  secret  place  when  she  gave  birth  to  yonng 
was  an  exceedingly^  useful  precaution. 

Domestic  fowls  hide  their  nests  for  the  same 
reason.  And  in  those  fowls  like  the  turkey  and 
the  guinea-hen,  which  have  been  most  recently 
domesticated,  this  instinct  is  much  stronger  than 
it  is  in  the  more  anciently  domesticated  chickens. 
Some  breeds  of  chickens  don't  seem  to  have  much 


•THE  GOOSE  COVERS 
HER  EGGS  WHEN 
SHE  LEAVES  HER 
NEST" 


of  this  instinct  left.  They  lay  their  eggs  openly, 
almost  any  place  where  a  nest  is  provided,  al- 
tho  they  may  prefer  to  have  the  nest  some- 
what secluded.  The  goose  takes  the  additional 
precaution  of  covering  her  eggs  with  grass  and 
sticks  when  she  leaves  her  nest  to  feed.  How  ab- 
surd it  is  for  a  goose  to  come  off  her  nest  right  in 
plain  sight,  and  go  to  work  and  cover  up  her  eggs. 
But  the  wheels  of  her  nature  have  gone  round  in 
this  way  so  often  in  the  wild  life  that  they  can't 
stop  now.  They  continue  to  run  on  after  all  rea- 
sons for  their  movement  have  passed  away. 
Sometimes  a  goose  vdW  show  a  weakening  of  this 


60  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

instinct  by  not  actually  covering  the  eggs,  but 
merely  throwing  a  few  straws  or  sticks  over,  or  in 
the  direction  of,  the  eggs,  and  letting  things  go  at 
that. 

In  the  wild  state  the  mother  rabbit  makes  her 
nest  out  of  hair  which  she  pulls  from  her  own 
body,  and  she  will  continue  to  do  this  when  domes- 
ticated, even  tho  cotton  or  other  nesting  material 
is  provided  for  her. 

These  mother  instincts  of  the  fowl  and  the  cow 
are  useful  in  a  world  where  eggs  and  young  are 
hunted,  but  in  human  fields  and  barnyards  they 
are  vestigial.  They  are  often  more  than  useless 
— they  may  be  injurious.  For,  sometimes,  the  cow 
will  hide  her  calf  so  that  the  owner  can't  find  it 
at  all,  till  after  it  has  perished  from  cold  and  rain. 
Domesticated  animals  are  in  many  ways  still 
adapted  to  the  mid  world,  and  continue  to  act  the 
same  as  they  would  act  if  they  were  still  living 
the  wild  life  which  they  have  left.  Animals  that 
live  in  association  with  man  are  generally  better 
off  if  they  co-operate  with  man.  But  there  are  a 
good  many  instincts  in  their  nature,  surviving 
from  their  wild  life,  which  cause  them  to  act  in  op- 
position to  man.  As  time  goes  by,  these  contrary 
instincts  will  grow  weaker,  and  will  finally  pass 
away  entirely.  For  man  tends  to  select  for  breed- 
ing purposes  those  best  suited  to  him. 

Mother  cows,  horses,  sheep,  hogs,  and  other  do- 
mestic animals  always  acquire  a  strangely  fierce 
nature  when  young  are  born  to  them.    They  are 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  61 

disposed  to  attack  anyone  or  anything  that  comes 
too  near  their  young.  This  protective  instinct  is 
strong  in  the  parents  of  domesticated  animals,  es- 
pecially mothers,  altho  largely  in  the  way  and 
useless,  because  there  was  a  time  in  the  past  when 
it  was  indispensable  to  the  species. 

7.    Mother  Love. 

Mother  love  is  not  a  human  invention.  It  has 
.been  inherited.  It  is  older  than  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Mother  love  in  man  came  from  the  same 
source  as  the  backbone  in  man— from  pre-human 
forms.  Mother  love  among  men  is  the  same  thmg 
exactly  as  mother  love  among  birds  and  quadru- 
peds. The  mother  monkey  loves  her  child  with 
almost  the  same  tenderness  as  the  human  mother. 
When  a  monkey  child  dies,  the  mother  carries  the 
little  corpse  around  with  her  for  days,  refuses  to 
eat,  and  sits  often  in  silence  and  grief.  Mother 
birds  will  risk  their  very  lives  for  their  young.  So 
will  mother  bears,  and  lions,  and  whales,  and  the 
females  of  many  other  species. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  this  instinct  to  protect  the 
young  has  been  planted  so  generally  in  the  fe- 
males, who  are  commonly  the  weaker  members  of 
the  species?  Among  vertebrate  animals,  at  least, 
the  males  are  larger  and  more  powerful  than  the 
females,  and  are  physically  much  better  fitted  to 
perform  this  protective  function  than  the  females. 
Why  has  not  nature  given  the  males  this  work  to 
do?    Has  nature  made  a  mistake  in  planting  this 


62  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

instinct  in  the  breasts  of  those  least  fitted  to 
have  it? 

It  is  commonly  said  that  the  hnm^an  mother 
loves  her  child  more  than  the  father  because  the 
child  is  a  part  of  the  mother's  body.  This  is  not 
true  at  all.  Mother  love  among  men  is  stronger 
than  father  love  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
mother  bird  or  the  mother  bear  loves  her  young 
more  than  the  father.  The  greater  affection  in 
the  mother  originated  in  the  pre-human  forms  of 
life,  and  the  human  species  simply  inherited  it. 

In  the  wild  times  in  which  this  instinct  origin- 
ated the  another  was  the  only  one  'present  at  the 
time  young  ivere  horn  and  the  only  one  in  whom 
this  instinct  could  he  planted.  It  was  better  to 
plant  the  instinct  in  the  weaker  members  of  the 
species  than  not  to  plant  it  at  all.  If  the  sex  rela- 
tions of  the  animal  kingdom  had  always  been  what 
they  are  prevailingly  among  men  today,  if  there 
had  always  been  a  family  with  one  father  and  one 
mother  in  it,  there  is  practically  no  doubt  that  the 
protective  instinct  would  have  been  developed 
chiefly  in  the  male  in  all  animals,  including  man. 

Among  some  fishes  the  male  assumes  all  the 
care  and  anxiety  of  parenthood.  And  this  is  true 
in  at  least  one  or  two  families  of  birds.  The  male 
ostrich  hatches  the  eggs  and  looks  after  the  little 
ones.  The  greatest  enemy  of  the  eggs  and  young 
of  the  stickleback  fish  is  the  mother  herself.  She 
not  only  has  no  affection  for  them  whatever,  but 
would  eat  every  one  of  them  up  if  she  weren't  pre- 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 


33 


vented  from  doing  so  by  tlie  father.  In  very  few 
species  of  fishes  do  the  females  care  anything  for 
either  the  eggs  or  yonng.  Among  fishes,  there- 
fore, the  instinct  to  save  the  young  is  not  the  won- 


THE  STICKLEBACK  FATHER  GUARDING  HIS  NEST 

derful  ''mother  instinct ^^  found  in  the  human  and 
other  higher  species,  but  the  father  instinct. 

Among  all  animals  that  mate  for  life,  birds  and 
men  alike,  parental  love  is  more  evenly  divided  be- 
tween the  two  sexes  than  it  is  among  those  races 


64  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

in  which  there  is  no  permanent  family  relation. 
The  regard  of  parents  for  their  young  is  a  provi- 
sion of  nature  for  saving  the  species  by  saving  the 
recruits  of  the  species.  And  whether  this  regard 
is  found  in  one  parent,  or  in  the  other,  or  in  both 
of  them,  depends  on  the  conditions  which  sur- 
round the  species  and  the  conditions  which  have 
surrounded  its  ancestors. 

As  time  passes  and  society  assumes  more  and 
more  the  care  of  the  young,  it  is  probable  that 
the  love  of  parents  for  their  own  children  will 
grow  weaker.  Parents  will  develop  a  feeling  of 
regard  for  children  as  a  whole,  and  will  not  have 
that  feeling  of  partiality  which  they  today  have 
so  much  for  their  own  children.  Society  is  in 
many  ways  better  fitted  to  look  after  its  young 
than  are  individual  parents.  Society  today  carries 
on  the  education  of  the  child,  providing  school 
houses,  teachers,  and  in  some  cr  ^es  even  books  and 
meals.  All  of  these  things  wert  formerly  done  by 
parents  themselves,  that  is,  in  a  **privateV'  rather 
than  in  a  *  ^  public  ^ '  way.  And  future  times  will  no 
doubt  see  still  further  advances  along  these  same 
lines.  We  live  in  a  changing  and  growing  world. 
If  we  could  come  back  to  the  world  a  thousand 
years  from  now,  we  wouldn't  recognize  it.  There 
would  be  new  styles,  new  languages,  new  nations, 
new  industries,  different  forms  of  education,  dif- 
ferent social  relations,  and  different  ideas  gener- 
ally. We  go  along  with  our  heads  down  assuming 
that  things  will  go  on  much  as  they  are  now.  This 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  65 

will  not  be  true.  Most  of  the  things  we  are  used 
to  today  will  be  gone  a  thousand  or  two  thousand 
years  from  now.  The  present  is  merely  a  passing 
phase  of  things. 

8.    Copying  the  Leader. 

Years  ago,  when  we  lived  on  a  farm  m  the 
country,  my  father  kept  sheep.  And  there  was 
one  peculiarity  in  the  sheep  psychology  that  I  re- 
member very  well. 

The  sheep  were  kept  in  a  lot  at  night  and  turned 
out  on  the  prairie  during  the  day.  Instead  of  a 
gate,  the  lot  had  what  were  called  **bars.'*  These 
were  wooden  pieces  extending  across  the  opening 
one  above  another,  and  were  pulled  to  one  side 
when  the  sheep  went  in  or  out.  Sometimes,  in  their 
eagerness  to  get  out,  the  sheep  would  begin  their 
activities  before  all  the  *^ bars''  could  be  **let 
down.'*  The  sheep  nearest  the  opening  would 
jump  over,  and  the  rest  would  follow.  Before 
many  had  passed,  the  remaining  **bars,''  of 
course,  would  be  taken  out  of  the  way.  But  every 
sheep  in  the  flock  would  jump  at  that  particular 
place  in  imitation  of  those  in  front,  even  tho  the 
obstacle  were  no  longer  there. 

This  cop3'ing  instinct  is  a  survival  of  the  past. 
It  originated  in  different  conditions  from  those 
in  which  civilized  sheep  live. 

Sheep  are.  mountaineers.  They  came  from  the 
highlands.  In  their  pre-domestic  existence  they 
lived  in  flocks,  each  flock  being  led  by  a  wise  old 


66  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ram  of  experience  and  courage.  These  flocks  were 
often  pursued  by  wolves  and  other  animals.  The 
sheep  escaped,  not  by  hiding  or  fighting,  but  by 
flight.  The  life  of  the  flock  often  depended  on  the 
skill  and  faithfulness  with  which  the  members  of 
the  flock  copied  their  leader.  And  the  practice 
sheep  have  of  following  and  imitating  their  leader 
was  acquired  no  doubt  thru  the  necessity  when 
pursued  of  leaping  over  the  same  chasms  and 
rocks  that  their  chief  and  those  in  front  of  them 
leaped  over,  whether  they  could  see  the  reason  for 
it  or  not.  Those  who  did  this  survived  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  and  those  who  did  not  do  it  went 
down  or  were  destroyed. 

The  copying  instinct  is,  therefore,  of  great  use 
to  a  species  living  as  sheep  lived  in  their  wild  ex- 
istence, but  of  no  use  to  them  since  they  have  be- 
come lowlanders.  The  instinct  to  follow  the  leader 
exists  in  all  animals  that  live  in  flocks  and  herds. 
It  is  useful  in  the  most  of  them. 

At  the  Chicago  ** stock  yards''  they  take  advan- 
tage of  this  copying  instinct  of  sheep  by  having 
a  trained  ram  lead  the  sheep  to  the  slaughter.  The 
sheep  have  the  nature  to  follow  the  ram,  and  when 
they  arrive  at  the  killing  place,  the  ram  steps  aside 
and  escapes,  to  lead  another  flock  a  little  later. 
This  is  an  instance  where  the  leader-following  in- 
stinct in  sheep  is  of  use  to  men  but  not  to  sheep. 
Hogs  and  cattle  do  not  have  this  instinct ;  and  they 
have  to  be  prodded  and  whipped  by  men  to  get 
them  to  the  killing  place. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  67 

9.    The  School  of  Nature. 

Young  sheep  and  goats  leap  and  gambol  in  their 
play.  I  have  noticed  young  goats  that  were  being 
led  along  the  streets  keep  up  an  occasional  jump- 
ing as  they  went  along,  leaping  first  one  way 
then  another,  sometimes  straight  up  into  the  air, 
as  if  they  were  worked  by  some  unseen  spring 
that  went  off  suddenly  inside  of  them.  How 
strange  such  conduct  must  have  seemed  to  the  pre- 
Darwinians.  But  to  the  evolutionists  it  is  as  plain 
as  day. 

Play  is  nature's  schooling.  It  is  preparation  for 
a  life  to  come.  Young  animals,  when  they  play, 
practice  on  what  they  are  going- to  do  later  on  in 
life.  This  is  true  of  all  animals,  including  the 
young  of  human  beings.  Lambs  and  kids  run  and 
leap  in  their  play  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
young  of  men,  dogs,  and  lions  scuffle  and  fight  and 
chase  each  other.  AMienever  there  is  any  chance 
for  it,  lambs  and  kids  choose  a  steep  bank  or  other 
declivity  as  their  pla^^-place.  A  bank  is  a  mimic 
mountain-side. 

Lambs  and  kids  are  the  children  of  mountain- 
eers. Their  natures  were  foniied  and  fitted  for  a 
very  different  life  from  the  one  they  now  lead. 
They  were  educated  for  life  among  mountains. 
The  leaping  and  running  of  their  play  originally 
was  the  very  preparation  they  needed  for  the  life 
they  would  lead  when  they  were  older.  It  devel- 
oped strength  of  muscle  so  they  could  run  fast  and 
leap  far,  and  also  gave  them  the  skill  to  light  with 


68  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

accuracy  and  to  cling  to  the  rocks  without  slip- 
ping. But  their  education  is  now  out  of  date.  Play- 
in  young  goats  and  sheep,  like  play  in  human 
young,  is  a  preparation  for  a  life  long  left  behind. 
The  play  of  the  children  of  man  is  preparation  for 
a  life  of  fighting,  such  as  our  savage  ancestors  led ; 
and  the  play  of  the  children  of  sheep  and  goats 
is  preparation  for  life  among  mountains  and  ene- 
mies, such  as  their  wild  ancestors  had.  "When 
goats  play,  they  go  to  school.  They  take  lessons  in 
doing  things  that  they  are  going  to  do  later  on  in 
actual  life.  But  the  life  conditions  of  domesti- 
cated goats  are  so  different  from  those  of  their 
wild  ancestors  that  their  schooling  is  out  of  date. 
They  mil  never  use  in  actual  life  the  lessons  they 
learn  in  their  young  years.  Goat  education,  like 
the  education  of  many  other  animals,  is  behind  the 
times. 

10.    A  Child  of  the  Sky. 

Goats  and  sheep  are  mountaineers.  Their  an- 
cestors lived  in  the  sky — in  those  high,  peaked 
places  of  the  world  to  which  they  had  been  driven 
by  the  hungry  mouths  of  the  lowlands.  Domestic 
goats  are  mostly  lowlanders.  And  if  you  will 
watch  them,  you  will  see  them  doing  many  things 
they  never  would  do  in  the  world  if  they  had  not 
been  descended  from  inhabitants  of  the  crags.  The 
tendency  of  the  goat  to  climb  up  on  lumber  piles, 
haystacks,  and  the  roofs  of  low  buildings  is  a  pe- 
culiarity which  it  brought  with  it  down  to  the 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  69 

plain  lands  from  its  original  home  among  the  pin- 
nacles of  the  world.  A  haystack  is  a  mountain 
peak,  from  which  this  child  of  the  sky  can  view 
the  world.    It  is  a  sentinel  place. 

The  ability  of  the  goat  to  subsist  on  almost  any- 
thing it  can  pick  up  is  also  an  accomplishment 
which  it  developed  up  there  in  those  bleak  and  bar- 
ren altitudes  whither  it  had  been  driven  by  the 
pitiless  mouths  of  the  lowlands.  It  has  been  up  in 
these  deserts  of  the  sky  that  goats  have  spent  most 
of  their  racial  existence  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  their  nervous  and  muscular  systems,  that  is, 
there  is  where  they  were  manufactured. 

The  goat  doesn't  eat  newspapers  and  old  rags 
for  pastime.  It  digests  them.  Paper  is  made 
from  wood,  and  rags  from  cotton  fibre,  which  is 
chemically  similar  to  wood.  An  important  part  of 
all  woody  fibre  is  a  substance  called  cellulose.  Cel- 
lulose is  chemically  the  same  as  starch.  It  is  also 
like  starch  in  the  fact  that  when  it  is  digested  it 
changes  to  sugar.  We  can  digest  cellulose  in  a 
test-tube  by  pouring  sulphuric  acid  on  it.  Put  sul- 
phuric acid  on  a  piece  of  newspaper  and  it  will 
change  to  sugar.  But  we  can't  digest  cellulose  in 
our  bodies,  because  we  haven't  the  right  chemicals 
in  our  digestive  fluids.  But  the  goat  can.  The 
goat  has  four  stomachs.  It  is  what  is  called  a 
ruminant.  It  chews  its  cud.  All  of  the  cud-chew- 
ing animals  have  stomachs  composed  of  four  com- 
partments.   And  they  are  able  to  include  in  their 


70  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

menus  many  things  that  animals  like  man  have 
to  omit. 

How  tame  the  lowland  earth  mnst  seem  to  souls 
born  in  the  sky.  How  the  children  of  the  peaks, 
who  are  compelled  to  spend  their  lives  on  the 
plains,  must  long  for  their  native  crags.  It  is 
said  that  the  king  of  Babylon  built  wonderful 
hanging  gardens  and  artificial  highlands  to  keep 
his  Medean  wife  from  becoming  homesick  for  her 
native  mountains. 

How  much  of  our  heart-hunger  is  from  the  past! 
It  survives  from  a  life  left  behind.  We  are  but 
images  worked  by  wires  stretching  back  thru 
the  centuries  that  are  gone.  We  are  each  little 
more  than  a  series  of  spectres,  one  inside  the 
others.  The  love  of  children  for  swinging  and 
tree-climbing  and  robbing  birds'  nests,  and  the 
general  craving  of  mankind  for  the  wilds,  are  sur- 
vivals of  the  old,  wild,  tree-dwelling  life  which  we 
have  so  recently  left.  The  cradle  and  the  rock- 
ing-chair are  artificial  tree-tops.  Human  beings 
never  would  have  invented  these  things,  because 
they  never  would  have  had  parts  in  their  nature 
calling  for  their  invention,  if  our  far  ancestors  had 
not  been  tree-dwellers. 

Can't  you  see  what  a  wonderful  key  this  idea  of 
survivals  is,  and  how  it  makes  plain  so  many 
things  that  are  not  understood  without  it  at  all  ? 

11.    The  Ways  of  Chickens. 

The  ancestor  of  the   domestic  chicken  is  the 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  71 

jungle-foAvl  of  India.  This  bird  is  dark-red  in 
color,  sleeps  in  low  trees,  and  roosts  night  after 
night  in  the  same  place.  It  nests  on  the  ground, 
and  the  female  has  the  habit  of  cackling  when  she 
has  laid  an  egg— a  rather  strange  practice  for  a 
bird.  Polygamy  prevails.  The  males  are  exceed- 
ingly pugnacious,  and  sing  to  the  sunrise  as  their 
town-dwelling  descendants  do  the  world  over  to- 
day. 

Domesticated  chickens  have  many  ways  of  act- 
ing which  can  be  understood  only  by  a  knowledge 
of  the  ways  of  their  ancestors.  Those  ways  are 
not  exactly  vestigial,  that  is,  they  are  not  useless, 
but  many  of  them  probably  never  would  have  been 
originated  at  all  if  chickens  had  always  lived  in 
the  conditions  they  now  live  in.  The  wild  chick- 
ens (jungle-fowls)  had  them  because  they  were 
useful.  The  domestic  chickens  have  them  merely 
because  they  have  been  presented  to  them. 

Domestic  chickens  make  their  nests  on  the 
ground,  not  in  trees  as  most  birds  do.  They  fol- 
low their  ancestors.  But  they  sleep  in  trees, 
either  real  or  artificial,  not  on  the  ground  as  ducks 
and  geese  do.  Chickens  also  have  the  habit  of 
sleeping  night  after  night  in  the  same  place,  like 
the  jungle-fowl.  Take  young  chickens  and  put 
them  to  rcost  in  a  certain  place  two  or  three  times 
and  they  will  roost  there  of  their  own  accord 
after  that. 

The  domestic  hen  hides  her  nest.  She  also  has 
the  instinct,  when  she  has  laid  an  egg,  to  announce 


72  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

the  fact  by  cackling.  It  looks  as  tho  these  two 
instincts  would  in  practice  have  the  effect  of 
counteracting  each  other.  And  they  do  in  civiliza- 
tion. But  we  must  remember  in  seeking  explana- 
tion for  the  instincts  of  domesticated  animals  that 
these  instincts  were  for  the  most  part  laid  down  in 
the  natures  of  these  creatures  in  circumstances 
very  different  from  those  which  surround  them 
today.  The  hen  as  a  wild  bird  laid  her  eggs  in  a 
secret  nest  and  cackled,  long  before  there  were  any 
beings  as  intelligent  as  men  on  the  earth. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  the  running  and  cack- 
ling that  the  hen  indulges  in  when  she  leaves  her 
nest  is  a  trick  which  she  used  to  lure  the  fox  from 
her  nest.  The  fox  would  follow  the  hen  and  for- 
get the  nest.  The  dove  and  the  partridge  employ 
tricks  of  this  kind  to  lure  enemies  from  the  vicin- 
ity of  their  nest.  And  this  probably  is  the  expla- 
nation of  the  noisy  flight  of  the  hen  when  she  is 
disturbed  on  her  nest. 

The  cackling  and  flight  which  a  hen  indulges  in 
when  disturbed  are  probably  a  different  perform- 
ance from  the  ordinaiy  cackling  of  the  hen  after 
laying  an  egg,  1  notice  that  when  the  hen  cackles 
the  rooster  cackles  too.  And  it  may  be  that  this 
duet  has  in  the  wild  state  the  purpose  of  announc- 
ing the  location  of  the  two  individuals  to  each 
other.  Wild  chickens  live  in  families,  each  com- 
posed of  a  single  male  and  several  females.  The 
male  is  very  jealous  of  his  wives  and  very  loyal  to 
them.    He  regards  himself  as  their  natural  lord 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  73 

and  protector.  When  a  member  of  his  family  has 
retired  to  her  nest  and  announces  by  her  cackling 
that  she  no  longer  has  occasion  to  be  alone,  the 
male  cackles  in  response  to  let  her  know  where  to 
find  her  family,  which  in  the  meantime  would 
often  have  drifted  some  distance  away.  I  have  no- 
ticed that  the  male  is  more  or  less  nervous  and 
anxious  on  these  occasions ;  and  cackles  generally 
to  members  of  his  own  family  only,  not  to  mem- 
bers of  neighboring  families. 
12.    Miracles  to  Come. 

The  most  advanced  breeds  of  the  domestic 
chicken  have  almost  entirely  lost  the  nest-hiding 
instinct,  which  is  so  strong  in  their  wild  ancestors. 
They  have  also  extended  their  egg-laying  to  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  The  domestic  fowl  is  a  bird. 
In  the  wild  state  it  has  the  common  practice  of 
wild  birds  of  laying  a  nest  of  eggs  in  the  spring 
and  hatching  them,  and  then  laying  no  more  till 
the  next  spring.  But  by  selection  breeds  have 
been  developed  in  which  egg-laying  is  continual. 

Cows  have  been  induced  to  prolong  the  milk- 
producing  period  in  the  same  way.  If  we  continue 
to  hatch  eggs  by  artificial  hens  and  to  select  for 
breeding  purposes  those  more  intent  on  egg-lay- 
ing, we  may  develop  hens  after  awhile  that  will 
lay  continually  the  year  around,  and  without  any 
inclination  to  set  or  cluck  or  hover  over  their 
young.  It  would  be  possible  also  to  develop  cows 
in  which  the  milk-producing  function  were  inde- 
pendent of  the  act  of  becoming  mothers. 


74  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

Domestic  Selection,  in  both  animals  and 
plants,  is  in  its  infancy.  Only  those  with  the  souls 
of  seers  can  even  dream  of  the  miracles  that  are 
destined  to  be  wrought  by  man  on  himself  and  by 
man  on  the  races  associated  with  him,  in  the  ages 
that  are  yet  to  dawn  on  this  globe.  Man  has  al- 
ready made  spineless  cactuses,  and  green  roses, 
and  seedless  oranges,  apples,  grapes,  bananas, 
and  pineapples.  And  in  the  same  way  he  can,  if 
he  wants  to,  and  will  set  his  mind  to  it,  develop 
mustard  seeds  as  big  as  marbles,  and  sheep  with 
hair  like  silk,  and  cows  that  do  nothing  but  give 
cream  the  year  around. 

13.    Cliff-dwellers  with  Wings. 

I  wonder  how  many  of  those  who  have  associat- 
ed with  pigeons  have  ever  thought  why  these  birds 
do  not  light  in  trees  and  do  not  build  their  nests 
in  trees,  as  birds  usually  do,  instead  of  in  artifi- 
cial apartments  created  by  man. 

There  are  something  like  200  different  varieties 
of  the  domestic  pigeon.  They  have  all  come  from 
the  rock-dove,  a  bird  which  makes  its  home  among 
the  sea-cliffs  of  Europe.  The  rock-dove  is  not  a 
tree-haunting  bird.  It  perches  on  rocks,  and 
builds  its  nest  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks.  The  do- 
mestic pigeon  builds  its  nest  in  a  man-made  cave 
because  its  ancestors  were  cliff-dwellers  and  built 
their  nests  in  rock-clefts.  It  prefers  the  house-top 
to  trees,  because  a  house-top  or  gable  is  a  more 
satisfactory  cliff  than  a  tree. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  75 

If  the  pigeon  had  been  domesticated  in  Amer- 
ica instead  of  in  Europe,  it  would  have  had  for  its 
ancestor  the  wild  pigeon  which  once  lived  in  such 
numbers  in  the  forests  of  eastern  North  America, 
the  so-called  passenger  pigeon.  Then,  it  would 
have  been  a  haunter  of  the  trees,  and  been  a  very 
different  being  from  the  cooing  cave-dweller  who 
today  lives  among  the  artificial  fastnesses  of  our 
streets  and  barnyards.  It  would  have  built  its  nest 
in  the  trees,  and  slept  in  the  trees,  and  had  the  in- 
stinct to  migrate.  The  rock-dove  is  not  a  migra- 
tory bird,  and  hence  domesticated  pigeons  have 
no  tendency  to  migrate.  But  if  the  domesticated 
pigeon  had  come  from  the  American  wild  pigeon, 
instead  of  from  the  European,  it  would  have  had 
the  migrating  instinct,  and  it  would  probably  have 
been  necessary  to  make  it  flightless  in  order  to 
keep  it  from  flying  away  in  the  fall,  as  we  have 
done  with  the  domesticated  geese  and  ducks. 

14.    Wild  Survivals  in  Hogs. 

The  domestic  hog  came  from  the  wild  boar  of 
Europe,  the  western  breeds,  any^vay;  those  of 
China  and  the  East  probably  being  descended 
from  the  wild  pig  of  India,  a  different  species.  In 
the  wild  state  these  animals  live  in  small  droves 
or  societies,  and  feed  on  roots  and  bulbs,  which 
they  unearth  with  their  short,  powerful  proboscis. 
Wild  hogs  are  polygamous  in  their  family  rela- 
tions. Like  their  not  very  distant  relative,  the 
rhinoceros,  they  are  swamp-loving  animals,  root- 


76  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ing  or  wallowing  in  the  soft  mud,  and  sleeping  oi 
mediating  in  the  heat  of  the  day.  They  manifest 
a  loyalty  to  each  other  in  times  of  danger  that 
borders  on  recklessness.  If  the  alarm-squeal  is 
sent  out  by  a  member  of  a  band,  the  whole  band 
will  risk  their  veiy  lives,  if  necessary,  to  help  the 
one  in  distress.  They  attack  their  enemies  with 
raised  bristles  and  hair-raising  *  ^  whoof  s. '  ^  When 
a  mother  and  her  young  are  surprised  by  sudden 
danger,  the  little  ones,  by  instinct,  drop  flat  and 
motionless  in  their  tracks,  while  the  mother  pro- 
ceeds to  handle  the  situation  with  unflinching 
courage. 

And  anyone  who  has  ever  associated  with  hogs 
knows  how  faithfully  the  domestic  breeds  have 
held  on  to  the  instincts  of  their  ancestors,  even 
tho  these  instincts  have  been  largely  useless 
since  they  have  lived  in  a  pen.  It  was  often  a 
wonder  of  my  boyhood  to  see  little  young  pigs 
suddenly  become  inanimate — to  see  them  drop  flat 
on  the  ground  and  lie  there  as  motionless  as  if 
they  had  been  pasted  there — when  some  event 
supposed  to  have  danger  in  it  came  along. 

The  bristles  and  war  ** whoof s''  of  hogs  are  the 
war-paint  and  war-whoops  of  men.  Many  animals 
add  to  their  chances  of  success  on  going  into  bat- 
tle by  m^aking  themselves  look  as  alarming  as  pos- 
sible. The  dog  growls  and  shows  his  teeth,  the 
bull  bellows  and  paws  the  earth,  the  cat  gets  its 
back  up  and  ^* spits,''  the  goose  hisses,  and  the  go- 
rilla yells  and  beats  its  breast  with  its  fists. 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  77 

Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  pig's  favorite 
activity — excavation — and  its  fondness  for  day- 
dreaming in  moist  earth  or  mud. 

Pigs  dig,  goats  gambol,  and  dogs  and  men  hunt 
and  fight,  when  they  are  released  from  the  cares 
of  life  and  haven't  an>i:hing  else  to  do.  These  are 
all  instances  of  the  survival  of  the  wild.  Pigs  find 
pleasure  and  exercise  in  excavation,  just  as  men 
and  dogs  find  pleasure  in  hunting  and  war. 

15.     Other  Vestigial  Instincts. 

The  domesticated  goose  is  from  the  Canada 
goose — the  wild  gray  goose  which  flies  over  in  V- 
shaped  flocks  going  north  in  the  spring.  The  wild 
goose  is  a  migrating  bird.  It  spends  its  summers 
in  the  northern  part  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  North 
America,  and  its  winters  in  India,  Egypt,  and  the 
sub-tropical  parts  of  North  America.  When  the 
weather  begins  to  grow  cold  in  the  fall  there  is  a 
feeling  comes  over  it  urging  it  to  fly  toward  the 
sunnier  sides  of  the  world.  And  when  the  sun 
comes  up  from  the  south  in  March  and  April  and 
warms  the  airs  of  the  northern  hemisphere,  there 
is  a  corresponding  feeling  in  the  goose  to  fly  to  the 
north.  As  a  boy  living  on  a  farm,  I  remember 
how,  when  the  wild  geese  used  to  fly  over  in  the 
spring  and  call  out  of  the  sky,  our  domesticated 
geese  would  call  back  excitedly,  and  would  some- 
times all  start  to  run,  at  the  same  time  flapping 
their  wings.  It  was  the  call  of  the  wild.  They  had 
the  urge  still  surviving  in  their  natures,  the  old 


78 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


spring  hunger  for  the  Pole,  but  they  did  not  have 
the  traveling  facilities  to  enable  them  to  carry  out 
their  desires. 

Tame  ducks  that  live  without  access  to  a  body 
of  water  will  often  go  thru  the  motion  of  dip- 
ping and  diving  and  splashing  the  water  with  their 


DUCKS  "BATHING"  IN  A  DRY  LOT 


wings  in  a  dry  lot.  The  machinery  of  their  nature 
was  set  up  in  surroundings  where  there  was  al- 
ways water,  and  they  continue  to  act  as  water- 
birds  even  in  the  absence  of  water. 

The  donkey  and  the  camel,  both  originally  desert 
animals,  have  an  unusual  aversion  for  getting  wet ; 
horses  stampede  (**run  away'')  when  frightened; 
bees  tend  to  fly  away  and  find  some  natural  habi- 
tation when  they  swarm ;  park  quails  scratch  the 
floor  of  their  cage  when  feeding,  as  they  were  ac- 
customed to  scratch  for  food  among  the  thickets 
and  grasses ;  and  tame  turtles  will  drop  into  the 


DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS  79 

water  on  being  surprised,  when  it  is  perfectly 
plain  that  they  do  so  mechanically  rather  than 
from  actual  fear. 

There  are  hundreds  of  such  survivals  of  wild 
life  in  the  psychologies  of  domesticated  animals. 
They  persist,  tho  often  in  a  dwindling  condi- 
tion, in  accordance  with  that  conservative  tend- 
ency of  the  universe  which  in  living  organisms  we 
call  Heredity. 


PART  III. 

The  Origin  of  Higher  Peoples 

1.  Purpose  of  the  Lesson. 

All  civilized  peoples  have  come  from  savage  peo- 
ples. They  have  grown  from  savages,  just  as  you 
and  I  as  individuals  have  grown  from  babies.  It 
is  important  to  know  this.  For  we  can't  under- 
stand the  things  civilized  men  and  women  do  and 
think  and  feel — many  of  them  are  so  barbarous 
and  strange — unless  we  recognize  the  fact  that 
civilized  men  and  women  are  merely  made-over 
savages. 

It  is  also  important  to  know  something  of  the 
nature  and  ideas  of  savages ;  so  that  we  can  com- 
pare them  with  our  own  nature  and  ideas  and  see 
how  much  of  us  has  survived  from  savage  times 
and  how  much  has  been  produced  since  then. 

The  purposes  of  this  lesson  are,  therefore,  (1)  to 
teach  you  that  all  higher  peoples  go  back  in  their 
ancestry  to  savages,  and  (2)  to  teach  you  some- 
thing about  what  sort  of  beings  savages  are ;  that 
is,  something  about  what  sort  of  animals  our  an- 
cestors were. 

2.  Where  the  English  Came  From. 

Go  back  into  the  past  two  or  three  thousand 
years,  and  you  don't  find  any  English  in  the  world, 
nor  any  French,  nor  Spanish,  nor  Germans,  nor 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  81 

Russians.  But  what  you  do  find  is  that  each  of 
these  modern  peoples  is  represented  at  that  time 
by  one  or  more  barbarous  tribes,  from  which  it 
has  grown.  The  English  go  back  to  the  Angles, 
Saxons,  and  Jutes,  three  barbarous  or  semi-bar- 
barous tribes  that  lived  originally  in  the  region  of 
Denmark  and  southward.  They  came  over  and 
settled  the  island  of  Great  Britain  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen hundred  years  ago.  The  first  settlement  was 
made  about  449  A.  D. 

These  people  were  very  rude.  They  dressed  in 
skins,  loved  adventure,  and  were  fond  of  water. 
They  lived  a  good  deal  by  pillage.  They  would  get 
in  theii  boats  and  cruise  along  the  coast  of  the 
Baltic  till  they  came  to  a  town  of  some  other  tribe. 
They  would  drive  the  people  out  or  kill  them, 
plunder  the  town,  and  then  burn  it.  They  thought 
this  was  the  proper  thing  to  do ;  for  they  acted  on 
the  principle  that  ''might  makes  right ;^'  that  is, 
on  the  principle  that  it  is  right  to  do  whatever  one 
has  the  power  to  do. 

Wherever  you  go  nearly  you  find  English— in 
North  and  South  America  (we  are  English),  in 
South  Africa,  Australia,  India,  and  in  many  of  the 
islands  of  the  sea.  The  English,  more  than  any 
other  people,  have  been  the  explorers  and  settlers 
of  the  planet.  The  English-speaking  peoples  are 
so  enterprising  that  they  already  occupy  a  large 
part  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  including  practi- 
cally two  whole  continents. 

One  reason  why  the  English  have  been  so  rest- 


82  SAVAGE  SUE^^VALS 

less  as  a  race  is  because  their  ancestors  were  that 
kind  of  a  people — sea-rovers.  Suppose  the  Eng- 
lish had  come  from  land  animals — beings  who 
lived  in  the  interior  of  Europe,  a  quiet,  home-lov- 
ing, peaceful  people.  Don't  you  suppose  the  his- 
tory of  England  would  have  been  a  very  different 
thing  from  what  it  is  today?  The  adult  English 
people  merely  reflect  the  character  of  the  infant 
peoples  from  whom  they  have  grown,  just  as  a 
grown  man  is  in  a  general  way  like  what  he  was 
when  he  was  a  child. 

3.    Other  Modem  Peoples. 

The  French  came  from  the  Gauls,  scattered 
tribes  that  lived  in  the  region  of  what  is  now 
France  at  the  time  of  the  Koman  Empire. 

The  Germans  came  from  the  Goths,  Vandals, 
and  Cimbri,  three  barbarous  tribes  that  lived  in 
central  Europe  and  assisted  in  overrunning  the 
Eoman  Empire. 

The  Italians  came  from  the  Komans,  a  people 
who  spoke  the  Latin  language  and  lived  in  the 
peninsula  of  Italy  and  other  Mediterranean  lands 
about  the  time  of  Christ  and  later. 

The  modern  Greeks  are  from  the  ancient 
Greeks. 

And  all  of  the  modern  white  peoples — Eussians, 
Germans,  French,  English,  Swedes,  and  Ameri- 
cans— can  trace  their  ancestry  back,  by  means  of 
common  languages  and  common  legends,  to  a  peo- 
ple who  came  long  ago  out  of  the  East,  out  of  the 


IN  HIGHEB  PEOPLES  83 

land  beyond  the  Caspian.  These  people  came  into 
what  is  now  Europe  and  settled  there  long  before 
written  history.  And  from  them  all  of  the  mod- 
ern European  peoples  have  come.  So  you  see  we 
have  all  branched  from  the  same  tribe  if  we  go 
back  far  enough. 

4.    The  Cradle  of  Mankind. 

But  where  did  these  original  white  people  come 
from?  And  where  did  the  dark  peoples  come 
from?  And  the  Chinese?  And  the  Indians? 
Where  was  the  cradle  of  the  human  species?  In 
what  part  of  the  world  and  at  what  time  did  man 
originate  as  a  new  and  distinct  species  of  animal? 
This  must  have  occurred  at  some  certain  place  on 
the  earth  and  at  some  definite  period  in  time. 

It  is  pretty  certain  that  the  human  species  did 
not  originate  in  what  is  called  the  western  half 
of  the  earth  and  spread  from  there  as  a  center 
over  the  world.  For  reasons,  the  most  of  which  I 
cannot  give  you,  because  it  would  take  too  long 
to  make  them  plain,  it  is  believed  by  scientists  that 
the  cradle  of  mankind  was  somewhere  in  the  east- 
ern hemisphere. 

One  reason  for  this  belief  is  that  it  is  here  that 
we  find  the  oldest  tracks  of  man,  the  earliest  evi- 
dence of  his  existence  in  the  world.  ^Ye  can  go 
back  into  the  civilizations  of  the  Nile  and  of 
the  Euphrates  and  of  some  of  the  rivers  of  India 
for  thousands  of  years,  in  some  places  8,000  or 
10,000  years.     Here  we  find  one  civilization  on 


84  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

top  of  another.  Here  are  found  the  things  men 
have  fought  with  and  worked  with  and  lived  in — 
objects  which  have  defied  the  teeth  of  time,  and 
which  endure  long  after  their  creators  have  van- 
ished. 

It  is  believed  that  man  originated  somewhere 
in  southern  Asia.  Or,  possibly,  still  further 
south  than  the  present  boundary  of  Asia,  in  lands 
now  drowned  by  the  Indian  Ocean.  This  sup- 
posed land  has  been  called  Lemiiria, 

5.    Changes  in  Geography. 

You  know  from  your  study  of  physiography 
that  a  large  part  of  what  is  now  the  land  surface 
of  the  earth  was  once  the  floor  of  the  sea.  Sand- 
stone and  limestone,  which  are  so  common  over 
the  land  surfaces,  we  know,  are  made  under  wa- 
ter, and  no  place  else.  And  we  find  the  fossils  of 
fishes  and  other  water  animals  scattered  all  over 
the  land,  even  to  the  mountain  tops.  The  remains 
of  a  whale  were  found  in  northern  Mississippi  the 
other  day.  This  animal,  when  it  died,  was  swim- 
ming in  the  Mississippi  Sea,  a  great  body  of  wa- 
ter which  once  extended  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
over  what  is  now  the  Great  Central  Plains  of  the 
United  States. 

The  City  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  is  built  where 
it  is  because  the  Ohio  river  has  a  fall  there.  This 
fall  is  caused  by  a  coral  reef  running  across  the 
river  at  that  point.  Corals  are  sea  animals.  And 
the  corals  that  located  the  city  of  Louisville  by 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  85 

forming  a  reef  at  that  particular  place  and  com- 
pelling the  Ohio  river  to  stumble  over  it,  lived  and 
died  in  that  far  off  time  when  Indiana  and  Ken- 
tucky formed  a  part  of  the  floor  of  the  Mississippi 
Sea. 

Now,  it  is  not  so  well  knoA\Ti,  but  it  is  a  fair 
inference,  that  much  of  what  is  now  water  surface 
was  once  land  surface.  ^Ye  mine  coal  under  the 
sea  in  some  places.  And  I  suppose  that  if  we 
could  only  get  at  them  we  would  find  many  things 
in  the  lands  under  the  sea  that  would  be  useful 
to  us  land  animals.  Maybe,  sometime,  when  we 
have  exhausted  the  stores  of  the  land,  we  shall  get 
so  hard  up  or  so  skilled  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
get  at  these  drowned  treaures  beneath  the  oceans. 

We  knoiv  that  there  have  been  many  changes  in 
the  geography  of  the  earth  in  the  past — that  the 
geography  of  the  earth  a  million  or  ten  million 
years  ago  was  not  what  it  is  today.  AVe  know 
that  Africa  was  joined  to  Europe  at  Gibraltar  un- 
til rather  recent  times  in  the  history  of  the  earth, 
and  that  Asia  and  North  America  were  united  at 
Behring  Strait. 

Geologists  say  that  North  and  South  America 
have  been  separate  continents  during  most  of 
their  geological  history.  The  Isthmus  of  Panama 
is  very  recent,  geologically  speaking.  There  are 
reasons  fqr  believing  that  before  South  America 
was  joined  to  North  America  it  was  connected 
with  Africa  and  even  Australia,  forming  a  great 
Antarctic  continent. 


86 


SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  87 

In  the  Pliocene  age  of  geology  Alaska  was 
joined  to  Asia  by  a  rather  wide  isthmus.  It  was 
over  this  isthmus  of  Behring  that  many  of  the 
North  American  animals  first  came  into  America 
from  Asia.  Animals  like  the  buffalo  and  the  moun- 
tain sheep  did  not  originate  in  America.  They 
came  from  Asia.  And  they  came  over  the  Behr- 
ing bridge  in  the  Pliocene  age  of  the  world.  No 
bones  of  these  animals  are  found  in  America  pre- 
vious to  this  time.  The  Indians  also  no  doubt 
came  into  America  from  Asia  by  the  same  route, 
altho  the  Indians  came  much  later  than  the 
buffalo. 

Until  comparatively  recent  times  in  geological 
history,  the  island  of  Great  Britain  was  joined  to, 
and  formed  a  part  of,  the  continent  of  Europe. 
The  earliest  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain  were 
Celts.  They  were  called  Britons  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxons.  Great.  Britain  may  not  have  become  an 
island  until  some  time  after  it  was  settled  by  hu- 
man beings.  The  Celts  may  have  walked  dry-shod 
over  what  is  now  the  North  Sea  into  what  Vv^as 
then  a  western  peninsula  of  Continental  Europe. 
That  is,  when  England  was  first  settled  by  human 
beings,  it  may  have  been  a  peninsula. 

6.    How  Old  is  Man? 

How  long  it  has  been  since  man  originated  as  a 
new  species  of  animal,  no  one  knows.  But  it  is 
known  that  it  was  a  long  time  ago.  Until  fifty  or 
one  hundred  years  ago,  it  was  generally  supposed 


88  SAVAGE  SUBVIVALS 

that  human  beings  had  not  existed  on  the  earth 
more  than  five  or  six  thousand  years.  But  the 
more  man  is  studied  and  the  more  the  earth  is 
rummaged,  the  further  back  into  the  past  is  the  be- 
ginning of  things  known  to  be.  It  is  kno'wn  posi- 
tively that  there  have  been  living  beings  on  the 
earth  for  a  good  many  millions  of  years.  It  is  es- 
timated that  life  has  existed  on  the  earth  for  fifty 
or  one  hundred  million  years ;  that  is,  that  the  an- 
imal kingdom  is  fifty  or  one  hundred  million 
years  old.  But  during  most  of  this  time  there 
were  no  human  beings  in  the  world.  Man  is  a  re- 
cent species.  But  it  is  believed  that  man  has  ex- 
isted on  the  earth  for  as  much  as  five  hundred 
thousand  years. 

7.    The  Spread  of  Mankind. 

The  human  species  probably  originated  some- 
where in  the  Indian  region  of  southern  Asia.  And 
from  this  as  a  center  it  has  spread  pretty  thor- 
oughly over  the  land  surfaces  of  the  globe,  not 
only  over  the  continents  but  to  most  of  the  islands. 
One  branch  moved  westward  and  formed  the  dark 
people  of  Africa.  Another  moved  north  and 
northwest  and  became  the  white  or  Caucasian 
race.  Another  moved  north  and  east  and  devel- 
oped into  the  yellow  or  orange  race,  that  is,  the 
Chinese,  Japanese,  etc.  And  a  branch  of  the  or- 
ange race  probably  moved  on  over  from  Asia, 
past  the  Behring  Strait  region,  into  what  is  now 
called  America,  forming  a  modification  of  the  or- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES 


89 


ange  race,  the  copper  or  red  race,  the  so-called 
American  Indians.  And  another  branch  of  the 
species  moved  eastward  to  the  Malay  peninsula, 
the  East  India  Islands,  Borneo,  New  Guinea,  the 
islands  of  the  South  Pacific,  on  as  far  as  the 
HaAvaiian  Islands,  forming  the  brown  or  Malay 
race.    This  gives  you  a  little  idea  of  the  scattering 


THE  SPREAD  OF  MANKIND 


out  of  the  different  races  of  men  from  the  original 
human  nest. 

The  Malays  are  an  island  race.  They  love  the 
water  and  are  at  home  in  the  water.  They  have 
been  developed  in  connection  with  the  water,  and 
are  largely  water  animals.  You  know  there  is  one 
species  of  buffalo  that  is  called  the  ^Svater  buf- 
falo,'^  because  it  loves  the  water.  The  Malays  are 
water  men. 

The  Hawaiian  islands  were  not  settled  from 


90  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

North  America  nor  Asia,  but  by  those  brown  sea- 
rovers  from  the  southwest.  The  nearest  land  to 
the  Hawaiian  islands  is  over  2,000  miles  awav. 
How  the  first  human  inhabitants  of  those  remote 
dots  ever  found  their  way  over  the  vast  wave- 
wastes  they  had  to  traverse  before  getting  there 
no  one  will  ever  know.  But  probably  they  were 
refugees,  carried  out  to  sea  by  a  storm,  and,  los- 
ing their  way  on  the  trackless  plains,  wandered 
on  and  on,  until  they  happened  to  stumble  upon 
those  hitherto  unknown  volcano-tops.  We  know 
such  things  can  happen,  for  a  junl?:  with  survivors 
on  board  drifted  ashore  from  the  west  at  the 
Hawaiian  islands  in  December,  1832. 

8.    The  First  Men.  ' 

Original  men,  that  is,  the  first  men  who  ever 
existed,  probably  lived  in  small,  loose  bands,  each 
band  being  composed  of  from  20  to  50  or  more  in- 
dividuals. These  bands,  in  their  organization  and 
modes  of  life,  were  probably  very  much  like  the 
bands  of  other  animals  that  are  met  with  today 
in  the  forests  and  on  the  prairies.  They  were 
without  fixed  places  of  abode.  They  subsisted  on 
the  fruits,  nuts,  roots,  young  shoots,  and  birds' 
eggs  which  they  came  upon  during  their  wander- 
ings thru  the  forest.  These  bands  of  early  men 
must  have  had  only  the  bare  beginnings  of  law 
and  government.  Each  band  was  led  by  an  old 
male  as  chief,  who  had  won  his  position  as  leader 
by    his    exceptional    strength    and    intelligence. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  91 

There  was  probably  no  family  life,  the  sexes  min- 
gling much  as  among  lower  animals  generally. 
Early  men  lived  in  a  tropical  climate,  and  were 
without  either  clothes  or  fire.  They  had  long 
arms,  and  short,  weak  legs.  Their  weapons  were 
sticks  and  stones.  They  were  able  to  overcome  all 
except  the  larger  animals  by  co-operation  and  the 
force  of  numbers.  They  probably  used  the  trees 
a  great  deal  as  a  refuge  in  time  of  danger.  They 
may  have  had  the  beginnings  of  superstitution. 

9.    How  the  Different  Races  Arose. 

It  is  not  probable  that  original  men  were  of 
various  colors — some  black  and  some  wliite  and 
some  orange  and  some  copper  and  some  brown. 
It  seems  more  likely  that  they  were  all  alike,  all 
one  color,  and  that  the  different  races  have  come 
about  as  a  result  of  the  different  surroundings  in 
which  they  have  lived  for  so  many  thousands  of 
years.  There  are  reasons  for  believing  that  orig- 
inal men  were  dark  in  skin  and  hair,  and  rather 
animal-like  in  character  and  intelligence.  The 
first  men  were  very  certainly  not  white.  The  an- 
imals most  nearly  related  to  man  (the  ones  from 
whom  he  has  probably  developed,  i.  e.,  the  man- 
like apes)  are  not  ivliite  animals,  but  dark.  The 
lower  races  of  men  are  also  prevailingly  dark,  not 
white,  in  skin  and  hair.  The  difference  in  color, 
size,  character,  and  mental  ability  which  exist  to- 
day have  been  caused  by  differences  in  climate, 


92  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

soil,  food,  activities,  and  natural  surroundings  to 
which  they  have  been  subjected. 

10.  Infant  and  Advanced  Races. 

Some  races  have  made  great  changes  in  their 
appearance  and  surroundings  and  nature  and 
powers  of  mind,  and  are  today  very  different 
from  those  far-oif  Lemurians  who  dwelt  so  long 
ago  in  that  cradle  land  of  India.  Other  races  have 
been  more  fixed.  They  have  remained  more  near- 
ly in  the  early  condition.  We  call  these  latter 
savages.  Savages  are  merely  people  who  are  in 
the  infant  stages  of  human  development.  They 
have  never  growm  up.    They  are  ** child  races." 

Most  of  the  broAAm  race  are  still  in  this  prim- 
itive condition  of  mankind.  And  a  large  part  of 
the  people  of  Africa  are  either  in  the  savage  stage 
or  the  stage  of  barbarism,  which  is  intermediate 
between  savagery  and  civilization.  Some  of  the 
lowest  Indian  tribes  were  in  the  savage  stage 
w^hen  first  found  by  white  peoples,  but. most  of 
them  were  in  the  stage  of  barbarism.  The  race 
which  has  been  most  talented  and  enterprising 
and  which  has  played  the  most  distinguished  role 
in  the  affairs  of  the  world  has  been  the  white  race. 

11.  Ages  of  Mankind. 

Man\s  first  tools  were  probably  of  wood  or 
stone.  It  doesn't  require  a  high  order  of  ingenu- 
ity to  turn  a  limb  of  a  tree  into  a  club  or  a  stone 
into  a  missile,  but  it  is  more  ingenuity  than  most 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  93 

animals  possess.  Baboons  will  sometimes  throw 
stones  at  their  enemies,  and  an  elephant  will  break 
off  the  branch  of  a  tree  and  use  it  as  a  fly-brush. 
Wasps  have  been  observed  to  use  tiny  pebbles  as 
hammers  in  packing  the  dirt  firmly  into  their  bur- 
rows. But  most  sub-humans  have  no  tools  other 
than  certain  parts  of  their  bodies  which  are 
adapted  to  certain  uses. 

Man's  first  inventions  were  not  agricultural  im- 
plements, but  weapons.  The  greatest  anxiety  of 
original  man  was  not  how  to  get  something  to  eat, 
but  how  to  keep  from  being  eaten.  And  so  one  of 
the  very  first  things  man  did  when  he  began  to 
branch  out  in  his  career  of  world  conquest  was  to 
arm  himself. 

The  development  of  mankind  has  been  divided 
into  Ages  or  Stages,  each  Age  representing  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  advancement  and  culture.  The 
Ages  that  I  shall  give  you  in  this  topic  are  not 
periods  of  time,  but  degrees  of  advancement. 
These  Ages  are  often  known  as  the  Stone  Age,  the 
Bronze  Age,  and  the  Iron  Age,  so-called  from  the 
material  which  man  used  prevailingly  for  his 
weapons  and  tools. 

But  a  more  helpful  subdivision  is  that  into  Sav- 
agery, Barbarism,  and  Civilization.  The  follow- 
ing nine  stages  given  by  Morgan  in  his  **  Ancient 
Society''  are  probably  as  good  as  any: 

1.  Lower  Savagery,  extending  from  the  begin- 
ning of  man  to  the  invention  of  the  art  of  fire- 
making  and  the  acquisition  of  a  fish  diet. 


94  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

During  tliis  stage  the  human  species  was  small 
in  numbers,  and  was  restricted  in  habitat  to  a 
small  area  somewhere  in  the  tropics.  These  chil- 
dren of  nature  were  very  rude.  They  were  the 
first  rough-drafts  of  men  and  women.  But 
they  had  one  thing  that  no  other  animals  on  the 
earth  at  that  time  had,  and  that  was  a  simple,  ar- 
ticulate language.    They  could  talk  to  each  other. 

Some  of  the  tribes  of  the  interior  of  Borneo  and 
the  Malay  peninsula  are  still  in  this  lowest  human 
stage.  The  Andaman  Islanders  use  fire,  but  have 
no  way  of  producing  it.  They  still  get  their  fire 
from  nature — from  fires  caused  by  volcanoes, 
lightning,  and  the  lil^e — and  carefully  preserve  it, 
borrowing  from  one  another  when  they  get  out. 

2.  Middle  Savagery,  from  the  invention  of  the 
art  of  fire-making  and  the  acquisition  of  a  fish  diet 
to  the  invention  of  the  bow  and  arrow. 

It  was  during  this  stage  that  mankind  spread 
from  its  original  habitat,  somewhere  in  tropical 
Asia  or  Africa,  over  a  large  part  of  the  earth. 
The  ability  to  make  fire  artificially  enabled  men  to 
leave  the  regions  of  perpetual  warmth  and  spread 
to  the  colder  parts  of  the  earth.  They  could  take 
their  climate  with  them.  The  spear  and  the  club 
were  probably  the  only  important  inventions  men 
had  made  when  they  began  to  scatter  over  the 
world,  that  is,  the  only  ones  besides  fire-making; 
because  these  are  the  only  inventions  common  to 
all  the  races  of  men. 

The  native  Australians  and  the  most  of  the 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  95 

Polj'iiesians  were  in  this  stage  when  discovered  by 
the  white  race. 

3.  Upper  Savagery,  from  the  invention  of  the 
bow  and  arrow  to  the  invention  of  the  art  of  mak- 
ing pottery. 

The  invention  of  the  bow  and  arrow  was  a  veiy 
important  one.  It  corresponds  in  importance  to 
the  invention  of  the  sword  during  the  period  of 
Barbarism  and  of  fire-arms  during  the  period  of 
Civilization. 

Some  of  the  lowest  tribes  of  the  American  In- 
dians were  in  the  stage  of  Upper  Savagery  when 
first  found  by  the  white  peoples.  There  were 
three  stages  of  culture  among  the  American  In- 
dians, namely,  Upper  Savagery,  Lower  Barbar- 
ism, and  Middle  Barbarism.  The  highest  stage 
was  represented  by  the  Indians  of  Mexico,  New 
Mexico  and  Peru,  who  lived  in  towns  and  culti- 
vated the  corn  and  potato  plants. 

4.  Lower  Barbarism,  from  the  invention  of 
pottery  to  the  domestication  of  animals  in  the 
eastern  hemisphere  and  the  domestication  of  the 
corn  plant  in  the  western  hemisphere. 

The  art  of  making  pottery  probably  arose  in 
connection  with  the  art  of  cooking,  and  in  its  sim- 
plest beginnings  consisted  in  merely  coating 
wooden  cooking  vessels  with  clay  to  keep  them 
from  burning. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  realize  what  hard  con- 
ditions man  has  had  to  pass  thru  in  climbing  to 


96  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

his  present  position  of  luxury  and  power.  The 
Eomans  had  no  sugar.  "Washington  never  owned 
a  stove.  At  Mt.  Vernon  is  the  old  home  of  Wash- 
ington, standing  there  in  much  the  same  condi- 
tion as  when  W^ashington  lived.  In  the  kitchen 
is  the  fire-place  and  all  the  old  devices  for  cook- 
ing over  it  hanging  there.  But  no  stove.  A  fire- 
place is  merely  a  camp-fire  which  has  been 
brought  into  the  house  and  presented  with  a  chim- 
ney. 

The  people  in  the  main  part  of  the  world  never 
had  any  potatoes,  corn,  tomatoes,  peanuts,  nor 
turkeys  until  after  America  was  discovered.  In 
very  early  stages  men  cooked  with  hot  stones,  in 
wooden  cooking  vessels.  They  put  clay  on  these 
vessels  to  keep  them  from  burning,  and  learned  to 
harden  it  by  fire,  finally  coming  to  use  clay  ves- 
sels altogether. 

The  most  of  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Missouri  river  and  many  of  the 
tribes  of  Asia  and  early  Europe  were  in  the  stage 
of  Lower  Barbarism. 

5.  Middle  Barbarism,  from  the  domestication 
of  animals  in  the  East  and  of  the  corn  plant  in  the 
West  to  the  invention  of  the  art  of  smelting  iron 
ore  and  the  use  of  iron  tools. 

The  village  Indians  of  Mexico,  New  Mexico, 
Central  America,  and  Peru  were  in  this  stage 
when  found  by  Europeans.  So  also  were  the 
Britons,  the  people  who  lived  in  Great  Britain 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  97 

when  the  Angles  and  Saxons  came  over  there,  al- 
tho  the  Britons  had  some  knowledge  of  iron. 

6.  Upper  Barbarism,  from  the  smelting  of 
iron  ore  and  the  use  of  iron  tools  to  the  invention 
of  the  alphabet. 

The  four  events  of  pre-eminent  importance  in 
the  period  of  Barbarism  were  the  following:  the 
invention  of  the  process  of  smelting  iron  ore,  the 
domestication  of  animals,  the  discovery  of  the  ce- 
reals, and  the  use  of  stone  in  architecture.  *^The 
production  of  iron  was  the  event  of  events  in  hu- 
man experience,  without  a  parallel  and  without  an 
equal,  beside  which  all  other  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries were  subordinate  or  inconsiderable^' 
(Morgan).  Some  historians  believe  that  man- 
kind might  have  remained  in  the  stage  of  Barbar- 
ism to  the  present  day,  if  men  had  not  learned 
how  to  produce  this  king  of  metals.  You  see  what 
a  narrow  escape  we  have  had. 

The  Greek  tribes  of  the  age  of  Homer,  the 
Italian  tribes  just  before  the  founding  of  Rome, 
and  the  German  tribes  of  the  time  of  Caesar  were 
in  Upper  Barbarism. 

7.  Ancient  Civilization,  from  the  invention  of 
the  alphabet  to  about  500  A.  D.  in  European  his- 
tory. 

8.  Medieval  Civilization,  from  about  500  A.  D. 
to  about  1500  A.  D. 

9.  Modern  Civilization,  from  about  1500  A.  D. 
to  the  present  time. 

The  period  of  Savagery  was  a  very  long  one — 


98  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

mucli  longer  than  the  periods  of  Barbarism  and 
Civilization  taken  together.  If  we  take  500,000 
years  as  the  length  of  time  man  has  existed  on  the 
earth,  then  something  like  400,000  of  these  years 
must  be  given  to  the  period  of  Savagery.  Men 
moved  very  slowly  at  first.  Savages  almost  stand 
still.  They  have  no  idea  of  progress.  Their  great 
anxiety  is  to  do  things  as  their  ancestors  did 
them.  Only  in  the  highest  peoples  of  the  earth  do 
we  find  any  real  desire  to  progress,  and  only  in  a 
few  individuals  among  these  highest  races. 

12.    The  Occupations  of  Savages. 

Among  the  higher  races  of  men,  the  chief  occu- 
pations are  agriculture,  stock-raising  manufac- 
turing, mining,  and  commerce.  These  occupations 
are  represented  very  feebly,  if  at  all,  among  the 
lowest  races  of  men.  Savages  live  on  the  ivild 
world — on  the  wild  plants  and  the  wild  animals. 

The  chief  occupations  of  savages  are  hunting, 
fishing y  and  fighting.  The  savage  lives  *^from 
hand  to  mouth.''  He  hasn't  the  understanding  to 
look  ahead  to  the  future,  and  his  means  of  pro- 
duction are  too  feeble  to  enable  him  to  accumulate 
anything  ahead  even  if  he  knew  enough  to  do  so. 

Altho  the  savage  is  without  domesticated 
plants  and  animals,  he  is  well  supplied  with  en- 
emies. The  chronic  condition  of  savage  men  is 
one  of  ivar.  The  savage  is  compelled  constantly 
to  defend  himself  not  only  against  other  men,  but 
against  wild  animals  by  whom  he  is  surrounded. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  99 

He  slays  other  animals  both  for  food  and  in  self- 
preservation.  The  larger  and  more  dangerous 
flesh-eating  animals  are  today  swept  from  the 
earth.  But  this  condition  of  things  has  come 
about  only  after  a  long  and  bloody  struggle  be- 
tween human  beings  with  their  bows  and  arrows 
and  spears,  and  the  non-human  beings  with  their 
teeth  and  claws. 

Savages  live  in  small  groups  called  tribes, 
which  are  almost  constantly  at  war  with  each 
other.  The  general  condition  of  peace  prevailing 
among  higher  men  is  unknown  to  savages.  With 
savages  war  is  the  natural  state,  and  peace  the  ex- 
ception. The  business  of  killing  and  of  being 
killed  is  carried  on  by  the  inen,  the  women,  for  the 
most  part,  following  other  occupations. 

Women  are  the  drudges  and  burden-bearers 
among  savages.  They  do  all  the  hard  work.  The 
condition  of  women  among  primitive  peoples  is 
everywhere  deplorable  and  unhappy.  The  men 
are  more  powerful  than  the  women,  and  they  use 
their  superior  strength  to  enslave  women  and  to 
force  upon  them  the  hard  and  disagreeable  tasks 
of  life.  The  courtesy,  respect,  and  protection 
shown  to  women  among  the  higher  human  races 
are  unknown  among  the  lower  races.  The  women 
of  savages  prepare  the  food  and  take  care  of  the 
young.  They  act  as  pack-animals  for  the  tribe, 
and,  if  the  tribe  is  intelligent  enough  to  engage  in 
agriculture,  the  women  do  the  work  in  the  fields. 

The  men  look  with  contempt  on  women's  work. 


100 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


An  Eskimo  will  go  out  and  kill  a  seal  and  bring 
it  to  shore  near  his  tent.  But,  according  to  his 
way  of  thinking,  it  would  be  a  disgrace  for  him 
even  to  pull  the  seal  out  of  the  water.  That  is 
woman's  work.  He  probably  feels  about  work  of 
that  kind  much  as  we  higher  men  feel  about  get- 
ting out  a  washing  or  cooking  our  own  meals. 


"WOMEN,  AMONG  SAVAGES,  DO 
ALL  THE  HARD  WORK" 


The  nunting  of  water  animals  is  called  fishing. 
You  can 't  hunt  fishes  on  horseback  nor  with  dogs. 
The  most  connnon  method  of  fishing  is  by  decep- 
tion, by  offering  the  fishes  food  or  something  that 
looks  like  food,  and  then,  when  they  come  to  get 
it,  arresting  them  by  a  hook  concealed  in  the  of- 
fering. 

13.    The  Nature  of  Savages. 

Lubbock  in  his  *' Origin  of  Civilization '^  cites 
hundreds  of  instances  of  savage  rudeness  and 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  101 

barbarity  which  seem  almost  unbelievable  to  one 
accustomed  all  his  life  to  t^-pes  of  hmnan  char- 
acter such  as  are  found  in  Europe  and  America. 

The  following  paragraph  is  about  the  Sioux  In- 
dians. It  was  written  by  a  man  who  lived  among 
them  for  a  number  of  years  and  knew  them  thor- 
oughly: 

**They  are  bigoted,  barbarous,  and  exceedingly 
superstitious.  They  regard  most  of  the  vices  of 
higher  men  as  virtues.  Theft,  arson,  rape,  and 
murder  are  regarded  by  them  as  the  means  of  dis- 
tinction. The  young  Indian  is  taught  from  child- 
hood that  killing  is  the  highest  of  virtues.  In 
their  dances  and  at  their  feasts  the  warriors  re- 
cite their  deeds  of  theft,  pillage,  and  slaughter  as 
precious  things.  And  the  highest  ambition  of  a 
young  Indian  is  to  secure  the  *  feather,'  which  is 
the  evidence  of  his  having  murdered  or  partici- 
pated in  the  murder  of  some  human  being — 
whether  man,  woman,  or  child  is  immaterial. '' 

** Conscience,"  says  Burton,  *Moes  not  exist  in 
east  Africa ;  and  repentance  simply  expresses  re- 
gret for  missed  opportunities  for  crime.  Rob- 
bery makes  the  honorable  man,  and  murder  makes 
the  hero.'' 

When  the  Fuegians,  who  inhabit  the  southern 
extremity  of  South  America,  are  hard-pressed  by 
want,  they  kill  their  old  women  rather  than  their 
dogs,  saying:  *^01d  women  no  use;  dogs  kill  ot- 
ters." 

*^What,"  said  a  negro  to  Burton,  ^*am  I  to 


102  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

starve  while  my  sister  has  children  whom  she  can 
selir'  The  idea! — that  he  should  go  hungry  so 
long  as  he  had  nieces  and  nephews  who  could  be 
put  on  the  market ! 

Speaking  of  the  wild  men  in  the  interior  of  Bor- 
neo, Lubbock  says : 

^^They  live  absolutely  in  a  state  of  nature, 
neither  cultivating  the  soil  nor  living  in  huts. 
They  move  about  the  woods  like  wild  animals. 
When  the  children  are  old  enoi^gh  to  shift  for 
themselves,  they  usually  separate,  neither  one 
afterwards  thinking  of  the  other.  At  night  they 
sleep  under  some  large  tree  whose  branches  hang 
low.'' 

When  the  natives  of  Australia  first  saw  pack- 
oxen,  some  of  them  were  frightened  and  took  them 
for  demons  with  spears  on  their  heads,  while  oth- 
ers thought  they  were  the  wives  of  the  settlers  be- 
cause they  carried  the  baggage. 

Savages  cry  easily  and  are  afraid  of  the  dark; 
they  are  fond  of  pets  and  toys;  they  have  weak 
wills  and  feeble  reasoning  powers;  they  are  no- 
toriously fickle  and  unreliable,  and  exceedingly 
given  to  exaggeration  of  their  own  importance — 
in  all  of  these  particulars  being  much  like  the 
children  of  the  higher  races  of  men. 

Eichard  says  of  the  Dogrib  Indians:  *^ However 
great  the  reward  they  were  to  receive  at  the  end 
of  their  journey,  the^^  could  not  be  depended  on  to 
carry  letters.  Any  slight  difficulty,  a  prospect  of 
a  good  meal,  or  a  sudden  impulse  to  do  this  or 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  103 

that,  was  enough  to  turn  them  aside  for  an  indefi- 
nite length  of  time. ' ' 

A  writer,  speaking  of  the  wild  tribes  in  the  Ma- 
lay peninsula,  says  that  they  are  always  restless 
and  always  seem  to  think  that  they  would  be  bet- 
ter off  in  some  other  place  than  the  one  they  are 
in  at  the  time.  Like  children,  they  almost  always 
act  impulsively,  being  rarely  guided  by  reflection. 

Of  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  it  is  said  that  they 
express  any  strong  passion  that  affects  them  by 
crying,  and,  like  children,  seem  to  forget  their 
tears  as  soon  as  they  are  shed.  A  New  Zealand 
chief  is  said  to  have  ''cried  like  a  child  because 
the  sailors  spoiled  his  favorite  cloak  by  spilling 
flour  on  it.  ^ ' 

Captain  Cook  says  that  the  king  and  queen  of 
Tahiti  amused  themselves  with  two  large  dolls. 
And  according  to  Burton  the  Negro  kings  of  West 
Africa  generally  ''are  delighted  with  toys,  rubber 
faces,  and  other  trinkets,  such  as  would  be  accept- 
able to  a  child  of  eight— which  the  negro  is.'' 

Like  the  child,  the  savage  is  exceedingly  vari- 
able and  chameleonic  in  his  nature,  being  driven 
hither  and  thither  by  whatever  feelings  and  im- 
pulses happen  along  from  time  to  time.  He  is 
governed  by  individual  emotions,  which  succes- 
sively depose  one  another,  instead  of  by  a  council 
of  the  emotions.  The  nature  of  the  savage  is  a 
series  of  emotional  despotisms,  instead  of  a  re- 
public presided  over  by  reason. 


104  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

14.    The  Understanding  of  Savages. 

To  the  savage,  things  are  what  they  seem  to  be. 
He  does  not  look  below  the  surface  to  find  causes. 
He  explains  things  as  a  child  would  explain  them. 
The  sun  actually  rises  and  sets,  as  it  seems  to  do. 
The  winds  are  alive.  Diseases  are  caused  by  evil 
spirits,  which  get  into  the  bodies  of  the  sick  and 
drive  out  the  natural  spirits.  Dreams  are  real 
experiences  which  the  soul  goes  thru  in  its  wan- 
derings outside  the  body  when  the  body  is  asleep. 
A  man's  shadow  or  his  image  reflected  in  the  wa- 
ter is  a  real  part  of  himself.  Savages  are  very 
reluctant  about  having  their  pictures  taken,  be- 
cause they  believe  that  the  picture  is  something 
that  has  been  extracted  from  themselves.  The 
Basutos  (Africa)  are  very  careful  when  they  walk 
along  a  river  not  to  let  their  shadow  fall  into  the 
water,  for  fear  the  crocodile  will  get  it,  and  by 
means  of  the  shadow  drag  them  into  the  river  and 
eat  them. 

Thunder,  among  savages,  is  often  regarded  as 
an  actual  deity  or  as  the  voice  of  a  deity.  ^^One 
night,"  says  Tanner,  **an  Indian  chief  became 
much  alarmed  at  the  violence  of  the  storm,  and 
got  up  and  offered  some  tobacco  to  the  thunder, 
begging  it  to  stop. ' ' 

To  the  mind  of  the  savage  every  object  has  a 
spirit,  and  this  spirit  causes  the  object  to  do  what- 
ever it  does.  A  watch  is  a  living  thing.  The  tick- 
ing of  the  watch  is  believed  to  be  caused  by  the 
spirit  inside  the  watch.    The  howl  of  the  wind  is 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  105 

the  voice  of  the  wind — the  voice  of  something 
alive.  When  a  tree  falls  in  the  forest,  the  savage 
believes  that  a  spirit  gets  inside  the  tree  and 
throws  it  dovm.  And  if  the  tree  happens  to  fall 
on  him  he  believes  that  the  spirit  has  a  grndge 
against  him,  and  hurled  the  tree  in  his  direction 
on  purpose.  The  savage  knows  nothing  of  nat- 
ural law,  nothing  of  chemistry  and  physics,  nor 
physiology.  When  fire  burns  a  piece  of  wood,  it 
is  the  understanding  of  the  savage  that  the  sub- 
stance of  that  piece  of  wood  goes  out  of  existence. 

Nothing  is  ever  destroyed.  Every  particle  of 
substance  that  exists  today  will  always  exist.  It 
is  not  possible  to  destroy  anything  nor  to  create 
an}i:hing — except  form.  The  forms  of  substances 
change,  but  the  atoms  themselves  remain  the 
same.  This  is  one  of  the  discoveries  of  modem 
chemistry.  It  is  known  as  the  Law  of  the  Inde- 
structibility of  Matter.  When  a  piece  of  paper  is 
burned  up,  every  particle  of  matter  that  was  in 
the  paper  continues  to  exist  after  the  burning  just 
as  before,  but  in  a  different  form.  The  carbon  of 
the  paper  combines  with  oxygen  and  forms  car- 
bon dioxide  (CO2),  which  passes  into  the  air  and 
is  invisible.  But  the  savage  knows  nothing  of 
these  changes,  and  believes  that  the  paper  goes 
out  of  existence  because  he  doesn't  see  it  any 
more. 

There  are  good  spirits  and  bad  spirits,  accord- 
ing to  the  savage  understanding.  The  bad  spirits 
are  supposed  to  be  much  more  numerous  and  en- 


106  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ergetic  than  the  good  spirits.  The  good  spirits  are 
believed  by  the  savage  to  be  on  his  side,  and  the 
bad  spirits  are  the  ones  he  is  all  the  time  trying 
either  to  outwit  or  to  gain  the  favor  of.  When  he 
has  a  good  day's  hunting  or  has  won  a  victory 
over  his  enemies,  he  credits  his  success  to  the  aid 
of  good  spirits.  On  the  other  hand,  when  he  fails 
in  his  undertakings,  or  has  some  accident,  or  gets 
sick,  he  believes  that  his  misfortunes  are  caused 
by  evil  spirits.  The  great  problem  with  the  sav- 
age is  the  problem  of  dealing  successfully  with 
these  two  different  kinds  of  spirits,  which  haunt 
him  and  hover  over  him  and  dog  his  footsteps  day 
and  night  from  his  cradle  to  his  grave. 

The  practice  of  medicine  among  savages  is 
based  on  the  theory  that  disease  is  caused  by  the 
dethronement  of  one  spirit  by  another,  the  usurp- 
ing spirit  being  a  demon  or  evil  spirit.  There  are 
no  microbes  among  savages.  Instead  of  anti- 
toxins, savage  doctors  use  tom-toms  and  bitter 
medicines.  Their  task  is  to  ^^cast  out''  the  evil 
spirit  that  has  wormed  its  way  into  their  patient. 
And  they  do  it  either  by  making  loud  noises  and 
scaring  the  intruder  out,  or  by  pouring  vile  drugs 
into  the  patient  and  in  this  way  making  it  so  un- 
pleasant for  the  demon  that  it  will  move  on. 

When  any  one  dies,  the  savage  believes  that  the 
spirit  of  the  dead  hangs  around  the  place  where 
the  body  is  buried  for  some  time.  The  notion  of 
** haunted   houses"    and    of   the    prevalence    of 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  107 

** ghosts"  about  graveyards  is  a  modern  survival 
of  this  old  savage  theory  of  spirits. 

Savages  believe  in  signs,  wonders,  and  miracles, 
for  they  know  nothing  of  the  laws  of  nature  as  we 
understand  them.  Eskimos  believe  that  a  child 
will  get  well  if  its  mother  will  refrain  from  chang- 
ing her  socks  while  the  sickness  lasts.  And  if  a 
man  is  sick  they  believe  his  sickness  would  cer- 
tainly be  made  worse  if  his  brother  should  eat  any 
portion  of  the  left  side  of  a  carabou.  But  such 
ideas,  foolish  and  unscientific  as  they  are,  are  just 
as  well  based  as  the  practice  of  carrying  a  chest- 
nut or  a  rabbit's  foot  in  one's  pocket  to  keep  off 
bad  luck,  and  a  hundred  and  one  other  things  that 
white  people  do  right  here  in  Chicago  all  the  time. 

Witchcraft  is  common  ever^^vhere  among  prim- 
itive men.  A  tvitch  is  a  person  who  by  means  of 
charms  or  magic  words  is  supposed  to  be  able  to 
invoke  the  enmity  of  evil  spirits  on  whomsoever 
he  wishes;  that  is,  is  a  person  who  *^ stands  in" 
with  the  evil  spirits.  And  the  power  supposed 
to  be  exercised  by  witches  is  called  witchcraft. 
Even  within  historic  times  witch-hunting  has  been 
an  honorable  business.  Witchcraft  was  one  of 
the  worst  superstitions  that  ever  afflicted  the 
human  mind.  And  it  was  not  until  compara- 
tively recent  times  that  it  was  finally  shaken 
off.  The  writings  of  Shakspere  indicate  that 
it  was  universally  believed  in  in  his  day.  The 
people  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  considered  it 
undeniable  for  a  time;  and  witches  were  legally 


108  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

executed  in  the  City  of  Mexico  as  late  as  1873. 

Many  savage  races  cannot  comprehend  nmn- 
bers  greater  than  five  or  six,  and  are  nnable  to 
solve  the  simplest  mathematical  problems  without 
using  the  fingers.  A  savage  cannot  do  mental 
arithmetic.    He  hasn't  the  machinery. 

The  mind  of  the  savage  is  concrete.  It  is  able 
to  deal  with  actual  things  only.  Abstract  ideas, 
such  as  those  of  numbers,  are  foreign  to  the  sim- 
ple sense  intelligence  of  the  savage.  **They  puz- 
zle very  much  after  five  in  counting,"  says  a 
writer  in  speaking  of  the  Damara  negroes,  *^  be- 
cause no  spare  hand  remains  to  grasp  and  secure 
the  fingers  that  are  required  for  units.  Yet  they 
seldom  lose  oxen.  The  way  they  discover  the  loss 
of  one  is  not  by  the  number  of  the  herd  being  di- 
minished, but  by  the  absence  of  a  face  they  know. 
When  bartering  is  on,  each  sheep  must  be  paid  for 
separately.  Thus,  suppose  two  sticks  of  tobacco 
to  be  the  price  of  one  sheep.  It  would  sorely 
puzzle  a  Damara  for  one  to  take  two  sheep  and 
give  him  four  sticks."  This  same  writer  says  in 
another  place:  **A  Damara  may  know  the  road 
perfectly  from  A  to  B,  and  again  from  B  to  C, 
but  he  would  have  no  idea  of  a  straight  cut  from 
AtoC." 

A  study  of  the  implements  and  weapons  of  sav- 
ages shows  that  these  implements  and  weapons 
have  been  the  products  of  many  thousands  of 
years  of  improvement.  They  have  not  been  in- 
vented.   They  have  arisen  by  small  modifications 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  109 

which  were  made  from  time  to  time,  largely  by  ac- 
cident. The  natural  selection  of  the  best  of  these 
implements  has  led  to  the  various  appliances, 
without  any  distinct  invention  of  them. 

15.    Moral  Ideas  of  Savages. 

The  earliest  human  virtues  to  develop  were 
those  which  were  useful  in  the  preservation  of  the 
individual  and  the  tribe — such  as  courage,  loy- 
alty, >.  idurance,  the  social  feeling j  and  the  desire 
for  praise  and  the  dread  of  blame. 

No  man  could  be  useful  or  faithful  to  his  tribe 
in  a  world  filled  with  enemies  without  courage. 
Hence  this  trait  of  cnaracter  has  been  universally 
extolled  among  primitive  men.  Among  higher 
men,  there  are  fewer  dangers,  and  hence  fewer  oc- 
casions for  the  exercise  of  physical  courage.  The 
emphasis  of  approval  has  been  shifted  consider- 
ably from  physical  courage  to  moral  courage. 
The  ultimate  heroes  of  this  world  will  not  be 
tribal  or  national  heroes,  but  the  heroes  of  human- 
ity. 

Men  have  stood  by  each  other  in  the  fierce  times 
gone  by  because  it  was  the  only  way  they  could 
stand.  The  individual  was  nothing  in  the  strug- 
gle for  life.  No  man  could  stand  alone.  The  in- 
dividual could  survive  only  by  uniting  his 
strength  with  that  of  others.  Reason  would  early 
teach  a  man  that  if  he  wanted  the  help  of  his  fel- 
low-men he  would  have  to  help  them  in  return, 
and  that  he  could  expect  others  to  be  true  to  him 


110  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

only  as  he  was  true  to  them.  Loyalty y  therefore, 
has  been  everywhere  among  primitive  peoples  one 
of  the  highest  virtues.  Many  instances  are  re- 
corded of  savages  deliberately  sacrificing  their 
lives  as  prisoners  rather  than  betray  their  com- 
rades. 

Since  it  is  not  possible  to  do  those  things  that 
are  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  tribe  without 
endurance,  this  quality  has  at  all  times  been  ^4gh- 
ly  valued  by  savages.  The  American  Indian  vol- 
untarily submits  to  the  most  painful  tortures 
without  a  groan  in  order  to  demonstrate  his  grit 
and  fortitude. 

In  the  rough,  semi-frontier  world  in  which  I 
lived  as  a  boy,  many  of  the  ideals  prevailing  were 
essentially  those  of  savages.  A  common  test  of 
manhood  among  us  boys  was  the  ability  to  endure 
having  a  piece  of  skin  pinched  out  of  the  knuckle 
of  the  hand  with  the  sharp  finger  nails.  And  a 
boy  who  could  show  a  whole  set  of  pinched-out 
knuckles  was  always  looked  up  to  by  the  other 
boys  as  a  sort  of  hero.  We  all  wanted  to  be  *^on 
his  side.'' 

Man's  social  nature  was  probably  inherited 
from  his  ape-like  ancestors,  who  commonly  live 
together  in  loose  bands  or  tribes.  The  social  na- 
ture means  the  tendency  in  living  beings  to  flow 
together,  and  live  together,  and  help  each  other  in 
the  struggle  for  life.  Social  animals  have  an  af- 
finity for  each  other.     They  are  uneasy  and  in- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  111 

complete  when  they  are  separated  from  their  kind. 
Early  men  had  this  feeling. 

Men  must  have  had  from  the  beginning  a  cer- 
tain sympathy  for  each  other,  and  must  have 
warned  each  other  of  danger  and  given  mutual 
aid  in  attack  and  defense.  As  men  became  more 
dominant  in  the  world  and  the  non-humans  be- 
came  of  less  consequence  as  enemies,  men  turned 
more  and  more  against  each  other.  Out  of  the 
long,  fierce  strife  which  men  have  waged  among 
themselves,  have  developed,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
tribal  instincts,  ideas,  prejudices,  and  hatreds, 
and,  on  the  other,  unity,  loyalty,  and  patriotism. 

The  debire  for  praise  and  the  dread  of  hlame 
are  powerful  incentives  among  all  savages,  as 
they  are  still  among  all  higher  peoples.  The  de- 
sire for  ''glory"  is  strong  even  among  the  rudest 
savages,  as  is  sho\^^l  by  their  excessive  boasting, 
the  care  with  which  they  decorate  themselves,  and 
their  craving  for  ''trophies,''  which  last  are  mere- 
ly the  evidences  that  they  are  entitled  to  some 
sort  of  distinction. 

The  savage  has  only  a  very  slight  knowledge  of 
the  world  in  which  he  lives.  He  has  no  railroads 
to  travel  on,  no  telegraphs  nor  telephones,  no 
newspapers  and  no  books.  He  knows  for  the  most 
part  what  he  sees  and  hears.  His  world  is  bound- 
ed largely  by  his  horizon.  What  there  may  be  be- 
yond the  mountain  chain  he  does  not  know.  But 
whoever  is  over  there  is  his  enemy.    And  the  fel- 


112  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

low  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountain  feels  the 
same  way  toward  the  fellow  on  this  side. 

**  Mountains  interposed  and  made  of  na- 
tions enemies, 

"Who  had  else,  like  kindred  drops,  been 
mingled  into  one." 

— Cowper. 

The  savage  observes  a  certain  rude  code  of 
morals  to  the  members  of  his  own  tribe,  who  are 
for  the  most  part  his  kinspeople.  But  all  those 
outside  of  his  tribe  are  his  enemies,  and  he  acts 
quite  differently  toward  them.  Acts  which  are 
looked  upon  as  bad  when  committed  by  a  sav^age 
against  the  members  of  his  own  tribe  may  be  re- 
garded as  harmless  or  even  commendable  when 
committed  on  those  outside  the  tribe.  Acts  are 
not  judged  by  their  natures  or  results,  but  as  to 
whether  they  are  performed  upon  outsiders  or 
upon  insiders. 

The  Balantis  (Africa)  punish  with  death  a 
theft  committed  against  a  fellow-tribesman,  but 
encourage  and  reward  thieving  from  other  tribes. 

The  Afridi  (Afghanistan)  mother  prays  that 
her  son  may  be  a  successful  robber — not  a  robber 
of  her  own  people  but  of  other  peoples — and  in 
order  that  he  may  become  skilled  in  crime  teaches 
him  to  creep  stealthily  thru  a  hole  in  the  wall. 

In  his  dealings  with  the  other  members  of  his 
tribe  the  savage  observes  a  certain  code  of  morals. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  113 

But  outsiders  are  outlaws.  They  may  be  at- 
tacked, robbed,  deceived,  murdered,  eaten,  or  en- 
slaved with  perfect  propriety.  The  savage  is 
loyal,  sympathetic,  and  truthful  toward  those  be- 
longing to  his  tribe,  to  his  group  or  bunch,  but  is 
disloyal,  untruthful,  and  unkind  to  those  outside 
his  group. 

^' There  was  no  brotherhood  recognized  by  our 
savage  forefathers,'^  says  Sir  Henry  Maine,  in 
speaking  of  the  ancestors  of  the  white  peoples, 
^'except  actual  relationship  by  blood.  If  a  man 
was  not  of  kin  to  another,  there  was  nothing  be- 
tween them.  He  was  an  enemy  to  be  hated,  slain, 
or  despoiled  as  much  as  the  wild  beasts  upon 
which  the  tribe  made  war,  as  belonging,  indeed,  to 
the  craftiest  and  crudest  of  wild  animals.  It 
would  scarcely  be  too  strong  to  assert  that  the 
dogs  which  followed  the  camp  had  more  in  com- 
mon with  it  than  the  tribesmen  of  a  foreign  and 
unrelated  tribe.'' 

The  feeling  of  enmity  and  hatred  which  a  sav- 
age feels  toward  strangers,  toward  those  outside 
his  tribe,  seems  to  be  the  complement  or  opposite 
of  the  social  feelings  which  the  savage  has  toward 
the  members  of  his  tribe.  Sympathy  and  hate 
have  much  the  same  relation  to  each  other  as  have 
pleasure  and  pain. 

The  moral  excellences  of  savages  consist  in  the 
practice  of  those  virtues  which, are  necessary  to 
the  preservation  of  the  tribe  in  a  world  of  strife 
and  war :  courage,  loyalty,  endurance,  sympathy, 


114  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

and  general  conformity  to  the  rules  and  usages 
of  the  tribe  in  its  social,  religious,  and  political 
organizations.  Those  virtues  are  more  or  less 
tribal  in  their  extent.  Toward  outsiders,  hatred, 
cruelty,  intolerance,  deception,  robbery,  and  even 
murder  are  encouraged  and  approved.  The  per- 
sonal virtues  of  temperance,  prudence,  modesty, 
industry,  self-control,  cleanliness,  and  the  desire 
for  self -improvement  come  later  in  human  devel- 
opment. The  virtues  of  humanity,  justice,  char- 
ity, gratitude,  humanitarianism,  and  the  desire 
for  progress  are  also  post-tribal  in  development. 

There  are  savages  and  near-savages.  Human 
beings  representing  a  considerable  range  in  devel- 
opment and  culture  are  called  savages.  And 
many  so-called  ' '  savages ' '  show  a  higher  grade  of 
character  and  intelligence  than  is  shown  by  the 
instances  mentioned  in  this  lesson.  But,  since 
men  have  come  from  lower  animals,  there  must 
have  been  intermediate  beings  between  those  low- 
er^ animal  forms  and  the  savages  existing  today 
that  were  even  lower  and  more  animal-like  than 
those  cited  here. 


PART  IV. 

Savage  Survivals  In  Higher 
Peoples 

1.    Purpose  of  this  Sub-course. 

The  first  five  lessons  of  this  second-year  ethics 
course  form  a  sub-course  in  themselves.  The  gen- 
eral purpose  of  this  sub-course  is  to  teach  some- 
thing about  our  natures  and  how  we  happen  to 
have  the  natures  we  have — something  about  where 
our  natures  came  from. 

You  often  hear  it  said  that  human  nature  never 
changes — that  it  is  the  same  today  as  it  has  al- 
ways been  and  that  it  will  always  be  the  same  as 
it  is  now.  This  is  not  true.  Human  nature  has 
groivn  to  be  what  it  is ;  and  it  will  continue  to 
change  and  grow  thruout  the  ages  of  the  future. 
It  did  not  always  exist.  It  has  been  formed,  like 
coal,  and  river  valleys,  and  mountains. 

We  used  to  believe  that  coal  had  always  been  in 
the  ground.  But  we  know  now  that  it  was  nearly 
all  formed  in  a  certain  age  of  the  world  called  the 
Carboniferous  Age.  Before  this  age  there  was  no 
coal  in  the  ground,  or  very  little.  And  we  know, 
too,  that  coal  has  been  formed  by  the  accumula- 
tion of  decaying  vegetable  matter,  which  grew 
and  fell  down  age  after  age,  and  then  was  cov- 
ered up  by  rock  deposits ;  and  by  being  subjected 
to  different  degrees  of  heat  and  pressure  the  dif- 


116  SAVAGE  SUKVIVALS 

ferent  lands  of  coal  were  formed.  Hard  coal  is 
different  from  soft  coal  because  it  has  had  differ- 
ent experiences. 

We  used  to  believe  that  momitains  and  river 
valleys  had  always  existed  just  as  we  find  them. 
But  you  know  better  since  you  studied  physiogra- 
phy. You  know  that  river  valleys  have  been  filed 
out  by  the  rivers  that  flow  thru  them.  And  you 
know  that  mountains  have  been  lifted  up  and 
sculptured  by  weathering  and  erosion  into  the 
forms  of  today.  And  it  is  the  same  way  with  hu- 
man nature.  It  has  grown  to  be  what  it  is.  And 
in  this  sub-course  I  want  to  teach  you  something 
about  the  origin  of  some  of  the  instincts  that  are 
found  in  our  natures. 

Many  of  the  most  powerful  tendencies  in  the 
natures  of  higher  peoples  are  vestigial.  They  are 
tendencies  which  were  useful  in  the  earlier  and 
more  primitive  ages  of  the  world,  but  which,  ow- 
ing to  changed  conditions,  are  no  longer  useful. 
They  persist  as  parts  of  our  nature  m  accordance 
with  the  same  laws  of  survival  which  perpetuate 
the  vermiform  appendix,  the  ear  muscles,  and 
other  useless  parts  of  the  human  body.  Darwin 
says  that  man  has  in  his  body  about  eighty  dif- 
ferent parts  that  are  vestigial — eighty  different 
parts  that  are  of  no  use  whatever.  And  it  is  very 
certain  that  there  is  a  much  larger  proportion  of 
our  natures  that  is  vestigial  than  of  our  bodies. 
We  have  a  great  deal  of  lumber  in  our  bodies,  but 
much  more  in  our  minds  and  natures. 


IN  HIGHEE  PEOPLES  117 

Some  one  has  said  that  **  civilization  wears  a 
train. ' '  It  does.  And  it  is  a  very  long  one.  It  is 
composed  of  the  ideas,  beliefs,  and  institutions 
which  have  served  men  in  the  past,  but  which  are 
today  out  of  date  and  useless,  but  which  we  go 
on  tolerating  because  we  are  not  energetic  enougli 
to  get  rid  of  them.  The  world  ought  really  to  get 
out  a  new  edition  of  itself  every  little  while,  leav- 
ing out  the  things  that  are  useless  and  untrue  and 
inserting  new  material  that  has  come  to  it  from 
the  higher  points  of  view. 

Human  nature  is  like  ever}i:hing  else — it  slowly 
changes.  It  is  not  the  same  today  that  it  was  a 
thousand  years  ago ;  and  it  is  not  the  same  today 
that  it  will  be  a  thousand  years  in  the  future.  We 
live  in  a  universe  where  everything  is  flowing. 
Human  nature,  like  everything  else,  slowly 
changes.  But  at  any  particular  time  human  na- 
ture, like  the  human  body  and  like  human  civiliza- 
tion, consists  largely  of  parts  which  ought  to  have 
been  abandoned  long  ago,  but  which  survive  be- 
cause of  our  inability  to  revise  ourselves  and 
bring  ourselves  up  to  date.  We  are  not  entirely 
of  the  present.  Much  of  us  has  come  from  the 
past  and  really  belongs  to  the  past. 

It  is  exceedingly  important  that  these  survivals 
should  be  understood.  It  is  still  more  important 
that  they  should  be  recognized  beyond  question  as 
being  illegitimate.  The  first  five  lessons  of  this 
Book  form  a  series  intended  to  teach  these  things. 

The  first  lesson  on  ''The  Origin  of  Domesticat- 


118  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ed  Animals''  teaches  that  all  domesticated  ani- 
mals have  come  from  wild  animals.  It  teaches 
also  something  about  the  world  in  which  these 
wild  ancestors  of  domesticated  animals  lived,  and 
the  kind  of  lives  they  led. 

The  second  lesson  on  **Wild  Survivals  in 
Domesticated  Animals''  shows  that  a  great  deal 
of  the  wild  ancestral  nature  still  survives  in 
domesticated  animals — that,  while  domesticated 
animals  have  changed  their  surroundings,  their 
natures  are  in  many  ways  not  changed. 

The  third  lesson  on  *  *  The  Origin  of  Higher  Peo- 
ples" shows  that  the  higher  races  of  human  be- 
ings have  also  come  from  wild  men  called  savages, 
just  as  domesticated  animals  have  come  from  wild 
animals.  This  lesson  tells  also  something  of  the 
natures  of  savages  and  the  kind  of  world  they  live 
in,  what  they  do,  and  the  like. 

Then,  lessons  four  and  five  on  **  Savage  Sur- 
vivals in  Higher  Peoples"  show  that  many  traits 
of  the  natures  of  wild  men  still  survive  in  all  high- 
er men. 

2.    Instincts. 

An  instinct  is  a  natural  tendency  in  a  living  be- 
ing to  do  a  thing  in  a  certain  way  ivhich  has  not 
been  learned  by  experience.  Instincts  are  inborn. 
"VVe  bring  them  into  the  world  with  us.  Birds  fly 
north  in  the  spring,  and  south  in  the  fall,  in  obedi- 
ence to  an  urge  or  tendency  in  their  natures  to  do 
so.     They  have  not  learned  to  do  these  things. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  119 

This  tendency  was  born  with  them.  It  is  a  part 
of  their  nature.  The  mother  bird  and  the  mother 
cow  and  the  mother  human  being  are  not  taught 
to  love  their  young.  It  is  an  instinct,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  in  all  the  gray  world  of  animal  life. 

I  wonder  if  you  have  ever  come  upon  the  wild 
partridge  with  her  young  ones  out  in  the  forest 
and  seen  those  little  balls  of  down  scatter  like 
chaff  at  the  warning  cry  of  the  mother.  When 
they  are  no  more  than  a  day  old  and  scarcely  able 
to  toddle,  these  little  apologies  of  living  beings 
will  disperse  at  the  distress  signal  of  the  mother 
as  promjDtly  and  expertly  as  if  they  had  practiced 
it  for  years,  creeping  under  leaves  and  squatting 
in  little  hollows  of  the  ground  and  lying  there  as 
still  as  stones,  and  looking  so  much  like  the  dead 
leaves  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  them, 
even  tho  one  knows  in  a  general  way  just  where 
they  are.  These  little  souls  were  not  taught  to  do 
this.  They  brought  the  instinct  with  them  when 
they  came  out  of  the  egg — along  with  their  back- 
bone, their  downy  covering,  and  their  craving  for 
food. 

Instincts  are  useful.  They  take  the  place  of 
reason  and  experience.  Different  species  have 
different  sets  of  instincts,  but  the  members  of  the 
same  species  commonly  have  the  same  instincts. 
The  nature  of  any  species  of  animal  is  made  up 
largely  of  the  instincts  or  tendencies  which  it 
possesses  and  which  urge  it  to  put  forth  its  ener- 
gies in  certain  definite  directions.    The  nature  of 


120  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

each  species  of  animal  is  composed  of  a  diiferent 
bundle  of  instincts.  Human  nature  is  the  name 
we  give  to  the  set  of  inclinations  which  we  find 
in  our  own  species.  Fox  nature  is  the  name  of  the 
bundle  of  instincts  found  in  foxes,  and  Jiorse  na- 
ture is  composed  of  the  urges  and  instincts  which 
cause  horses  to  do  the  things  they  do. 

Fundamentally  the  natures  of  all  the  higher  an- 
imals, including  man,  are  much  alike,  just  as  the 
bodily  structures  of  all  the  higher  animals,  includ- 
ing man,  are  fundamentally  similar.  All  the 
higher  animals  have  backbones,  and  ribs,  and  four- 
chambered  hearts,  and  two  lungs,  and  two  pairs 
of  limbs  containing  the  same  bones,  and  heads 
with  eyes,  ears,  nose,  and  mouth  occupying  the 
same  relative  positions.  And  in  the  same  way  all 
the  higher  animals,  including  man,  have  natures 
prompting  them  to  be  anxious  about  their  young, 
to  be  fond  of  their  mates,  to  seek  food  when  they 
are  hungry,  and  to  do  their  level  best  to  live  as 
long  as  they  can.  The  dog,  the  cat,  the  robin,  and 
the  man,  altho  in  many  ways  very  different 
from  each  other  in  their  natures,  are  nevertheless 
all  alike  in  their  eagerness  to  live  and  in  their  in- 
variable preference  of  pleasure  to  pain. 

3.    Habits. 

Hahit  has  been  called  *^ second  nature.''  And 
this  is  a  very  good  name  for  it.  Hahit  is  truly 
second  nature.  Our  first  nature  is  the  one  we  bring 
into  the  world  with  us.    It  consists  of  the  inclina- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  121 

tions  which  grow  up  in  us  along  with  the  early 
growth  of  our  bodies ;  that  is,  our  gro'\\i;h  before 
birth.  An  instinct  is  a  tendency  to  act  in  a  uni- 
form way  which  was  horn  with  us;  a  Jiahit  is  a 
uniform  way  of  acting  which  we  acquire  after 
birth.  Our  natural  ways  of  acting  may  be  modi- 
fied by  the  habits  which  we  acquire  after  we  come 
into  the  world. 

Habits  are  formed  by  repetition — by  doing 
things  over  and  over  and  over.  If  we  lived  in  a 
world  where  things  were  never  repeated,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  form  habits.  The  oftener  we 
do  a  thing  the  greater  the  tendency  to  do  it  again. 
Eepeat  anything  often  enough,  and  it  will  become 
a  habit,  and,  in  time,  harden  into  a  fixed  part  of 
our  nature.  Life  is  filled  with  repetitions  of  all 
kinds — walking,  writing,  eating,  playing,  working, 
dressing  and  undressing,  etc.  After  we  walk,  and 
talk,  and  eat,  and  work,  and  dress,  and  dream, 
and  bathe,  and  write  our  names,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  times,  we  fall  into  certain  fixed 
styles  of  doing  them.  We  come  to  walk  in  a  cer- 
tain way,  and  have  a  certain  style  of  handwriting, 
and  a  certain  way  of  speaking,  and  a  certain  or- 
der of  putting  on  our  clothes,  and  a  certain  set 
of  favorite  drinks  and  dishes,  and  a  certain  look 
and  disposition.  Some  of  these,  of  course,  de- 
pend a  good  deal  on  our  original  nature,  as,  for  in- 
tance,  our  looks  and  disposition.  But  even  these 
are  largely  the  result  of  habit.  The  face  is  largely 
the  mirror  of  the  soul.    When  we  have  a  certain 


122  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

feeling,  as  anger  or  joy,  it  shows  itself  in  the  face. 
And  if  a  feeling  is  repeated  over  and  over  and 
over,  it  freezes — it  becomes  the  common  expres- 
sion 01  the  face.  We  can  tell  a  grouch,  a  thinker, 
an  optimist,  or  a  wit  by  the  general  condition  of 
mind  which  he  advertises  in  his  face. 

These  habits  deepen  with  the  repetitions  of  the 
passing  years.  In  the  early  stages  of  the  forma- 
tion of  a  habit  we  may  do  a  thing  or  not  as  we 
choose.  But  in  the  course  of  time  it  becomes  very 
difficult  or  even  impossible  to  act  otherwise  than 
we  have  formed  the  habit  of  acting.  The  habit 
becomes  master.  We  form  mental  and  moral  hab- 
its, just  as  we  form  bodily  habits.  We  get  into 
the  habit  of  thinking  in  certain  ways  and  of  be- 
lieving certain  things,  and  after  we  have  thought 
these  things  over  thousands  of  times  we  can't 
think  any  other  way  to  save  our  lives.  If  we 
should  think  that  the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese 
a  million  times,  we  would  probably  never  be  able 
to  think  differently,  however  long  we  might  live. 
You  have  each  of  you  certain  beliefs  regarding 
politics,  religion,  education,  etc.,  which  you  have 
because  you  grew  up  in  a  certain  neighborhood 
and  family.  In  many  ways  these  beliefs  of  yours 
would  be  the  very  opposite  of  what  they  are  if  you 
had  come  into  existence  in  a  different  family  or 
neighborhood.  It  is  a  very  serious  business,  this 
choosing  of  our  parents  and  our  place  of  birth; 
for  what  becomes  of  us  as  men  and  women  de- 
pends a  great  deal  on  what  sort  of  influences  beat 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  123 

in  upon  us  and  mold  us  during  our  earlier  years. 
We  may  form  habits  of  honesty  or  dishonesty,  of 
kindness  or  unkindness,  of  truth  or  falsehood,  etc., 
and  as  the  years  go  by  these  habits  will  harden 
into  character  as  certainly  as  the  world  goes 
round.  If  we  could  only  realize  while  we  are  yet 
young  how  soon  we  shall  become  a  mere  walking 
bundle  of  habits,  we  would  be  much  more  careful 
as  to  what  habits  we  fasten  upon  ourselves  \vhile 
we  are  still  in  the  habit-forming  stage.  We  begin 
at  the  wrong  end  of  life.  We  just  get  ready  to 
live  when  we  are  called  upon  to  die. 

4.    Useful  and  Vestigial  Instincts. 

Useful  instincts  are  instincts  which  we  need  in 
our  business.  They  are  the  urges  in  our  nature 
which  cause  us  to  go  in  the  directions  which  are  of 
advantage  to  us.  Every  animal  has  to  do  certain 
things  in  order  to  live  and  perpetuate  its  species. 
And  the  urges  or  inclinations  which  cause  an  ani- 
mal to  do  what  it  should  do  are  the  useful  in- 
stincts. An}i:hing  that  an  animal  does  that  is  not 
useful  or  advantageous  is  vestigial. 

One  of  the  things  that  used  to  puzzle  me  as  a 
boy  on  the  farm  was  the  fierce  nature  that  cows, 
horses,  sheep,  and  other  domesticated  animals 
showed  at  the  time  young  were  born  to  them.  We 
would  go  out  to  the  barnyard  some  morning  and 
find  a  cow  with  a  young  calf.  She  may  have  been 
the  gentlest  cow  on  the  place,  and  one  that  ordi- 
narily we  could  do  anything  with.    But  when  she 


124  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

had  a  young  calf,  look  out.  She  was  a  different 
being.  Cows  vary  a  good  deal  in  this  respect,  but 
nearly  all  of  them  at  such  times  show^  some  dispo- 
sition to  attack  anything  or  anybody  that  comes 
too  near  their  young. 

I  don't  think  as  a  boy  I  ever  wondered  ivliy 
cows  were  this  way.  I  didn't  know  enough.  It 
merely  seemed  strange  that  a  being  would  change 
so  over  night. 

If  I  had  asked  any  of  the  people  who  lived  about 
there  why  cows  were  this  way,  they  \vould  prob- 
ably have  told  me  that  it  was  *^just  natural.'' 
That  is  what  we  often  say  when  we  are  asked 
about  something  we  don't  understand,  and  we 
don't  want  to  admit  that  we  don't  understand  it. 

But  everything  is  natural.  There  is  nothing 
really  that  is  not  natural,  that  is,  there  is  noth- 
ing that  is  not  a  part  of  nature.  There  is  also 
an  explanation  for  ever}i:hing,  if  we  can 
only  find  out  what  it  is.  And  one  of  the  things 
that  you  should  get  an  early  grip  on  and 
a  good  grip  on  is  this  fact — that  there  is  a 
reason  for  everything.  One  of  the  chief  delights 
of  the  intellectual  life  is  the  joy  of  rooting  around 
in  this  complicated  world  and  turning  up  the 
causes  of  things. 

Domesticated  cattle  have  come  from  wdld  cattle. 
And  wild  cattle  live  in  a  very  different  world  from 
the  one  that  domesticated  cattle  live  in.  They  live 
among  the  forests  and  on  the  prairies  surrounded 
by  wolves  and  bears  and  other  animals  that  are 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES 


125 


enemies  to  them.  Like  all  other  animals,  wild  cat- 
tle are  adapted  to  the  world  they  live  in.  They 
have  the  kind  of  body  that  they  need  to  enable 
them  to  exist,  and  they  are  provided  with  instincts 
pushing  them  this  way  and  that  and  causing  them 
to  do  the  things  they  need  to  do  in  order  to  sur- 
vive. They  have  large  bodies  and  big  powerful 
muscles.     They  have  on  their  heads  weapons  of 


THE  MOTHER  INSTINCT 


defense  in  the  form  of  horns.  And  wild  cattle 
wouldn't  last  long  in  a  world  of  wolves  and  bears 
without  these  weapons  of  defense. 

One  of  the  most  important  instincts  in  these 
wild  races  is  the  instinct  to  protect  their  young. 
A  young  calf  when  it  first  comes  into  the  world 
is  almost  as  helpless  as  a  human  baby  in  a  cradle. 
And  if  there  were  not  so7ne  one  to  take  an  interest 
in  it  and  defend  it,  in  a  world  where  a  hundred 
hungry  mouths  are  ready  to  eat  it  up,  the  species 
would  not  last  long.    And  those  species  have  sur- 


126  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

vived  and  prospered  that  have  saved  their  young. 
And  so,  in  many  animals,  generally  in  the  mother, 
there  has  been  implanted  the  instinct  to  love  and 
protect  the  young  of  the  species. 

All  domesticated  animals  have  come  from  wild 
animals.  Their  surroundings  have  been  much 
changed  by  domestication.  They  do  not  need  to 
do  the  same  things  in  human  fields  and  pastures 
and  barns  and  homes  that  they  used  to  do  in  the 
wild  life  among  the  hills,  forests,  and  prairies. 
Hence  they  have  many  instincts  that  are  no  longer 
useful  to  them  but  which  survive,  like  the  ear  mus- 
cles and  vermiform  appendix  in  man,  and  like 
horns  in  domesticated  cattle.  They  are  vestigial 
instincts — instincts  which  were  once  useful  but 
which,  owing  to  changes  in  surroundings,  are  no 
longer  useful  and  are  now  in  the  act  of  slowly 
passing  away. 

5.    Vestigial  Instincts  in  Man. 

Man  also  was  once  a  wild  animal.  We  are  do- 
mesticated animals,  we  higher  peoples  of  the 
earth,  or  partially  domesticated  at  any  rate.  All 
higher  peoples  have  come  from  savage  peoples. 
And  if  you  trace  savages  back,  you  will  find  that 
they  have  come  from  still  more  savage  and  animal- 
like ancestors.  The  savage  is  the  common  ances- 
tor of  all  higher  men.  And  it  is  not  possible  to 
understand  the  things  higher  men  do  nor  to  ac- 
count for  the  things  that  you  find  in  their  natures, 
unless  you  recognize  the  fact  that  higher  men  are 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  127 

merely  savages  made    over    and    only  partially 
changed. 

'' Scratch  a  Eussian  and  you  will  find  a  Tartar 
underneath/'  some  one  has  said.  The  Tartars 
were  the  wild  men  from  whom  the  Russians  have 
come.  And  the  saying,  ''Scratch  a  Russian  and 
you  will  find  a  Tartar  underneath/'  means  that 
Russians  are  Tartars,  except  a  thin  layer  on  the 
outside. 

It  is  the  same  way  with  all  the  higher  peoples 
of  the  earth.  Civilization  is  only  a  skin.  The 
great  core  of  human  nature  is  barbaric.  Human- 
ity is  only  a  habit— hardly  a  habit  even,  for  we 
find  it  to  be  one  of  the  easiest  things  to  lapse  into 
the  old  savage  ways  of  thinking  and  feeling  and  ^ 
acting.  You  cannot  go  very  deep  into  even  the 
highest  men  until  you  come  to  something  so  un- 
complimentary that  it  has  to  be  kept  carefully  in 
the  background.  If  we  were  transparent  and  could 
look  into  each  other  and  see  all  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  that  come  and  go  in  our  innermost  beings, 
we  would  then  know  much  better  than  we  do  now 
what  plated  beings  we  really  are  and  how  much 
more  shining  and  attractive  we  are  on  the  out- 
side than  we  are  on  the  inside. 

Human  beings  are  not  children  of  the  sun.  They 
are  children  of  the  jungle.  We  have  in  our  na- 
tures many  things  that  we  would  be  a  great  deal 
better  off  without— instincts  and  ways  of  acting 
which  we  would  never  have  included  in  ourselves 
in  the  world  if  we  had  had  the  privilege  of  choos- 


128  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ing  just  what  was  to  go  into  our  natures.  These 
instincts  and  ways  of  acting  are  vestigial.  They 
were  useful  to  our  ancestors,  but  owing  to  changes 
in  surroundings  they  are  not  useful  to  us. 

Savage  peoples  live  in  a  different  world  from 
the  world  that  higher  peoples  live  in,  and  they  do 
very  different  things  from  what  higher  peoples 
do.  The  savage  is  a  child  of  nature.  He  lives 
much  as  other  wild  animals  live.  He  has  no  do- 
mesticated plants  nor  animals.  He  subsists  on  the 
wild  world.  He  hunts  and  fishes  and  fights  for  a 
living.  He  wanders  about  in  small  bands  or  tribes, 
maintaining  himself  by  almost  constant  war  with 
other  tribes.  He  is  ignorant,  superstitious,  and 
poor.  He  leads  a  hand-to-mouth  existence.  Life 
is  filled  with  dangers,  fears,  and  adventures.  The 
moral  law  of  the  savage  is  the  law  that  7nigM 
makes  right — ^the  law  that  prevails  among  the 
fiercer  orders  of  animal  life  everywhere. 

The  savage  is  adapted  to  the  world  in  which  he 
lives.  He  has  the  kind  of  body  that  he  nesds,  and 
he  has  the  instincts  driving  him  to  do  the  things 
he  needs  to  do  in  order  to  maintain  himself  in  the 
world. 

The  higher  races  of  men  have  left  the  wild 
world  of  their  ancestors.  They  live  for  the  most 
part  in  an  artificial,  man-made  world.  Their  oc- 
cupations are  peaceful.  They  are  grouped  into 
great  cities  and  states,  and  maintain  vast  indus- 
tries of  agriculture,  grazing,  manufacturing,  min- 
ing, and  commerce.    Life  is  co-operative.    Knowl- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  129 

edge  and  wealth  have  accumulated  enormously. 
Monogamy  and  more  or  less  settled  family  rela- 
tions have  displaced  the  promiscuity  of  the  savage 
and  the  animal.  And,  most  important  of  all,  the 
Golden  Rule  as  a  moral  standard  and  ideal  has 
taken  the  place  of  the  savage  standard  of  Might, 

Hence  the  higher  races  have  in  their  nature 
many  instincts  and  ways  of  acting  that  are  no 
longer  useful  to  them.  These  instincts  are  sur- 
vivals from  our  savage  ancestors.  They  survive 
for  the  same  reason  that  horns  survive  in  domes- 
ticated cattle,  and  eyes  in  cave  fishes,  and  ear 
muscles  in  men.  They  have  gone  out  of  use,  but 
not  long  enough  for  them  to  have  gone  out  of  ex- 
istence. 

The  vestigial  instincts  which  survive  in  the  na- 
ture of  higher  peoples  from  their  savage  ances- 
tors are  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  immorality 
of  higher  peoples.  You  have  heard  of  **  original 
sin.'^  What  we  call  *^  original  sin^'  is  merely  the 
name  we  give  to  the  wrong-going  caused  by  the 
vestigial  instincts  of  our  nature.  We  go  wrong 
because  we  are  driven  in  wrong  ways  by  the  left- 
over instincts  of  our  ancestors.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  human  heart  is  the  gladiatorial  arena  of 
gods  and  beasts — the  gods  representing  those 
higher,  better,  and  more  civilized,  but  newer,  in- 
stincts of  our  nature,  and  the  heasts  representing 
those  lower,  older,  and  more  animal-like  impulses 
which  tend  ever  to  drag  us  down.  It  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  that  these  things  should  be  un- 


130  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

derstood.  For  our  success  as  civilized  beings  and 
our  right  to  be  regarded  as  members  of  civilized 
society  depend  on  the  degree  of  ascendancy  which 
we  enable  the  higher  and  better  parts  of  our  na- 
ture to  achieve  over  the  lower.  Our  degree  of 
civilization  depends  on  how  frequently  we  enable 
the  *^ gods''  in  our  nature  to  come  out  on  top. 

6.    The  Instinct  of  Fear. 

This  is  one  of  the  oldest  instincts  of  this  world. 
It  existed  long  before  man,  and  was  inherited  by 
him  from  pre-human  ancestors.  Fear  first  appears 
somewhere  near  the  worm  stage  of  animal  devel- 
opment, and  is  found  in  all  animals  above  this 
stage.  Fear  is  the  instinct  to  shrink  from  danger 
or  enemies.  It  is  the  retreating  or  fleeing  instinct. 
The  lowest  animals,  those  below  the  worms,  are 
more  or  less  indifferent  in  the  presence  of  ene- 
mies. They  act  about  the  same  toward  enemies 
as  toward  friends.  But  higher  animals  are  more 
discriminating.  The  instinct  of  fear  causes  them 
to  promptly  retreat  from  the  presence  of  danger- 
ous individuals.  The  instinct  of  fear  brings  a 
great  improvement  in  animal  behavior.  It  gives 
to  those  who  have  it  a  great  advantage  in  the 
struggle  for  life  over  those  who  do  not  have  it.  It 
is  natural  to  expect  fear  to  appear  very  early  in 
a  world  filled  as  full  of  danger  and  enemies  as  this 
world  is. 

Fear  is  aroused  by  the  same  beings  that  arouse 
the  fighting  instinct.    Whether  we  run  or  fight  in 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  131 

the  presence  of  an  enemy  depends  on  circum- 
stances— depends  on  our  judgment  as  to  which 
activity  would  be  the  most  profitable  in  the  end. 
When  we  come  into  the  presence  of  an  enemy  we 
are  either  impelled  toward  the  enemy  by  the  fight- 
ing feeling  or  driven  away  from  the  enemy  by  the 
feeling  of  fear.  But  the  two  feelings  are  entirely 
different  from  each  other,  even  tho  they  may  be 
aroused  by  the  same  object. 

The  world  of  early  man  was  full  of  dangers  and 
enemies.  These  enemies  were  not  only  far  more 
numerous  than  now  but  relatively  much  stronger. 
For  man  originally  was  entirely  unarmed ;  and  for 
many  thousands  of  years  after  he  began  to  invent 
weapons  he  was  much  more  poorly  equipped  than 
now.  The  progress  from  savagery  to  civilization 
is  characterized  by  nothing  more  marked  than  hy 
the  decrease  in  occasions  for  fear. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  a  bird  eating,  or  drink- 
ing, or  taking  its  bath?  It  takes  a  bite,  and  then 
looks  around.  Then  it  will  take  another  bite,  and 
look  again.  It  is  always  on  the  look-out  for  ene- 
mies. It  almost  sleeps  with  one  eye  open.  It  is 
pursued  alwa^^s  by  a  pitiless  state  of  fear.  All 
wild  animals  have  enemies,  and  they  are  able  to 
maintain  themselves  in  the  world  only  by  constant 
vigilance.  Mr.  Galton  says  that  **  every  antelope 
in  South  Africa  has  literally  to  run  for  its  life 
every  day  or  two  on  an  average,  and  that  it  starts 
or  gallops  under  the  influence  of  alarm  many 
times  in  a  day."    Many  animals  that  live  in  flocks 


132 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


or  herds  have  developed  the  practice  of  having 
certain  individuals  in  the  group  act  as  sentinels 
while  the  rest  are  eating  or  sleeping. 

Men  originally  lived  in  this  state  of  constant 


"ri  *^A  3^^^' 


^'^S-:^i^F^ 


Simmons 


"EVERY 
ANTELOPE  IN 
SOUTH  AFRICA 
HAS  TO  RUN 
FOR  ITS  LIFE 
EVERY  DAY  OR 
TWO" 


fear.  They  were  always  in  danger  of  running 
into  enemies  of  some  kind — not  only  during  their 
wanderings  by  day  but  especially  at  night  when 
they  slept.  The  savage  is  always  suspicious,  al- 
ways in  danger,  and  always  on  the  watch.  He  can 
depend  on  no  one,  and  no  one  can  depend  on  him. 
He  expects  nothing  from  his  neighbor,  and  does 


IN  HIGHEE  PEOPLES  133 

unto  others  as  he  believes  they  would  do  to  him  if 
they  got  a  chance.  *  ^  The  life  of  the  savage, ' '  says 
Lubbock,  **is  one  long  anxiety,  one  long  scene  of 
selfishness  and  fear/' 

Today  we  sit  dowm  to  our  meals  or  lie  down  to 
sleep  at  night  without  a  thought  that  we  will  be 
attacked  before  we  get  thru  eating  or  sleeping. 
Thousands  and  millions  pass  their  entire  lives 
without  much  real  occasion  for  fear — except  from 
microbes,  which  are  generally  invited  by  slip-shod 
ways  of  living. 

7.    Survivals  of  Fear. 

Loud  and  sudden  noises  startle  us,  merely  be- 
cause we  have  the  nervous  machinery  which  was 
manufactured  to  fit  a  world  where  loud  and  sud- 
den noises  meant  real  dangers.  When  we  hide 
somewhere  and  jump  out  suddenly  and  seize  some 
one,  especially  if  our  appearance  is  accompanied 
by  a  loud  noise,  our  victim  is  certain  to  go  thru 
the  emotional  performance  of  one  who  has  been 
really  ambushed.  And  the  fact  that  we  enjoy 
going  thru  the  motion  of  ambushing  some  one  that 
way  is  in  itself  a  survival  from  the  days  when  the 
ambush  was  the  most  common  form  of  attack  on 
others.  Such  make-believe  attacks  are  successful 
because  men  still  have  to  a  certain  extent  the  in- 
stincts of  the  ambush  ages. 

Strangers,  whether  men  or  not  men,  are  espe- 
cially likely  to  cause  the  feeling  of  fear.  "We  shy 
at  strangers  and  always  have  a  certain  uneasi- 


134 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


ness  in  their  presence  which  has  no  justification  in 
the  circumstances.  It  must  be  a  survival  from  the 
time  when  strangers  were  never  friends,  but  al- 
ivays  enemies.  We  are  especially  afraid  of  im- 
portant personages — of  those  who  have  figura- 
tively the  greatest  power  of  good  or  evil  over  us. 
This  suspicion  is  not  useful  today.  It  is  in  our 
way.  It  is  a  survival  from  the  ages  of  justified 
fear. 

The  great  fear  which  we  have  of  snakes,  spi- 


'THE  FEAR  OF  SNAKES  COMES 
FROM  THE  FAR  PAST" 


ders,  etc.,  is  probably  vestigial.  It  certainly  ex- 
ists today  in  unnecessary  strength.  The  fear  of 
snakes  is  probably  an  inheritance  from  the  mon- 
key. The  monkey  is  mortally  afraid  of  snakes. 
Put  a  snake  into  a  monkey  cage  and  the  monkeys 
are  terror  stricken.  Monkeys  have  been  known 
to  drop  unconscious  in  the  presence  of  snakes  thru 
great  fear.  And  no  wonder.  The  snake  is  one  of 
the  monkey's  worst  enemies.  The  monkey  can't 
kill  a  snake.  The  great  tree-snakes  of  the  tropics 
are  deadly  enemies  of  the  monkeys.  And  before 
the  invention  of  the  club  the  snake  was  about  as 
formidable  an  enemy  to  man  as  it  was  to  the  mon- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  135 

key.  But  as  soon  as  man  got  the  club  or  the  spear 
in  his  hand,  the  snake  was  nothing.  Man,  unarmed, 
is  a  very  feeble  animal,  and  his  supremacy  in  the 
world  is  due  solely  to  the  fact  that  he  had  che  in- 
telligence to  arm  himself. 

Black  things,  and  especially  dark  places  such  as 
caves,  and  even  darkness  in  general  tend  to  cause 
in  us  the  feeling  of  fear.  We  are  afraid  of  these 
things  even  when  we  know  they  contain  no  ele- 
ment of  danger.  But  to  the  savage  the  cave  was 
a  lair,  and  darkness  was  a  great  big  abyss  filled 
with  all  sorts  of  things  with  teeth.  When  the  sun 
goes  down  with  us,  we  turn  on  the  lights  and  pro- 
long the  day,  indoors  and  outdoors;  but  when  the 
sun  went  down  on  the  savage,  his  eyes  went  out. 

The  fear  which  comes  upon  us  in  being  ^4ost'* 
is  largely  vestigial.  A  lost  savage  was  in  real 
danger.  He  was  the  legitimate  prey  of  anybody 
or  anything  that  came  upon  him.  But  being 
^'losf  in  a  city  or  in  a  wood  is  much  less  serious 
than  our  feelings  indicate.  We  feel  much  as  we 
used  to  feel  when  being  *4ost"  was  dangerous. 
In  all  animals  that  live  in  groups  {gregarious  ani- 
mals) there  is  an  aversion  to  being  alone.  A 
writer  says  of  the  half -wild  cattle  of  South  Africa: 
**Altho  the  ox  has  apparently  little  affection  for 
or  interest  in  his  fellows,  he  cannot  endure  separa- 
tion from  his  herd.  If  he  is  separated  from  it  by 
force,  he  shows  every  sign  of  mental  agony.  He 
strives  with  all  his  might  to  get  back.  And  when 
he  succeeds,  he  plunges  into  the  middle  of  the  herd 


136  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

and  fairly  bathes  himself  in  the  feelings  of  com- 
panionship." 

The  fear  of  ghosts,  goblins,  and  graves  is  a  sur- 
vival from  the  time  when  men  supposed  that 
about  all  the  evils  of  life,  even  storms,  earth- 
quakes, and  diseases,  were  caused  by  evil  spirits. 
Primitive  men  believed  that  the  spirit  of  the  dead 
hung  around  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  body 
for  some  time  after  it  left  the  body.  We  seem  to 
retain  some  part  of  this  belief  in  our  half-assent 
to  the  theory  of  ** haunted''  houses  and  *^ haunted" 
cemeteries. 

The  instinct  of  fear  is  a  useful  instinct  where- 
ever  life  has  dangers  or  enemies.  And  it  is,  of 
course,  still  useful  in  many  ways  to  higher  peo- 
ples. But  there  is  much  greater  security  among 
higher  peoples  than  among  lower  peoples,  and 
hence  many  occasions  for  fear  have  passed  away. 

We  fear  the  things  which  our  machinery  (na- 
ture) is  adapted  to  fear.  And  our  machinery  is 
adapted  to  fear  the  things  we  needed  to  fear  in 
the  savage  world  gone  by,  namely,  thunder  and 
lightning  and  snakes  and  solitude  and  strangers 
and  darkness.  None  of  these  things  now  has  much 
danger  to  civilized  peoples,  but  we  continue  to 
fear  them  because  of  the  survival  of  the  old  fear- 
producing  machinery.  Microbes  are  probably  a 
thousand  times  as  dangerous  to  human  life  and 
happiness  as  snakes  are,  but  our  ^^ natural"  im- 
pulse is  to  fear  snakes  much  more  than  microbes. 
We  love  fighting  rather  than  figures,  and  explora- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  137 

tion  more  than  agriculture,  and  play  and  dissipa- 
tion rather  than  useful  occupations.  Our  machin- 
ery has  never  been  made  over  to  suit  modern  life 
and  conditions. 

8.    The  Fighting  Instinct. 

The  fighting  instinct  is  the  instinct  to  contend 
and  to  overcome  by  force.  It  causes  anyone  who 
has  it  to  act  differently  from  what  the  fear  in- 
stinct does.  Fear  urges  one  to  retreat ;  the  fight- 
ing instinct  urges  one  to  attack  and  injure  and 
kill. 

The  fighting  instinct  is  also  an  old  instinct.  It 
was  not  invented  by  man.  It  \vas  presented  to 
him  by  his  pre-human  ancestors,  who  fought  and 
bled  and  died  for  millions  of  years  before  there 
were  any  human  beings  in  the  world.  According 
to  Romanes,  the  fighting  instinct  first  shows  itself 
in  ants  and  spiders.  It  is,  hence,  not  so  old  as  the 
fear  instinct,  for  the  ants  and  spiders  are  some- 
what higher  than  the  worms  and  came  into  the 
world  somewhat  later. 

As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  said  that  the  fight- 
ing instinct  is  stronger  in  the  higher  and  more 
powerful  animals  and  the  fear  instinct  in  the 
lower  and  weaker  species.  Many  species,  like  the 
deer,  rabbit,  mouse,  and  sheep,  have  adopted  a 
different  policy  in  the  struggle  for  life  from  other 
species,  such  as  the  lion,  wolf,  and  rhinoceros. 
The  rabbit  and  the  mouse  run  for  their  lives,  as 
a  general  thing,  because  they  are  better  at  run- 


138  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ning  than  at  fighting.  They  have  neither  great 
strength  nor  very  good  fighting  implements.  The 
lion  and  rhinoceros,  on  the  other  hand,  follow  gen- 
erally the  fighting  policy,  because  they  are 
equipped  for  it.  Some  species,  therefore,  are  pre- 
vailingly fleeing  species,  and  are  dominated  by  the 
fear  instinct,  while  other  species  are  fighting  spe- 
cies, and  are  ruled  commonly  by  the  fighting  urge. 
But  even  the  fleeing  species  contend  more  or  less 
among  themselves  for  the  possession  of  food  and 
other  necessities  of  life.  And  in  many  passive 
species  the  males  wage  fierce  war  for  their 
mates. 

The  animal  kingdom  has  been  reared  in  a  gory 
cradle.  This  is  especially  true  of  man,  who  has 
fought  his  way  to  a  supremacy  in  the  w^orld  more 
bloody  and  complete  than  that  hitherto  achieved 
by  any  other  species.  The  natural  condition  of 
early  man  was  that  of  war — war  with  other  men 
and  with  other  animals.  Peace  w^as  the  exception. 
Every  being  outside  of  the  tribe  of  the  savage  was 
an  enemy  and  a  legitimate  object  of  plunder. 
There  w^ere  alliances  and  counter-alliances.  Men 
sought  ever  to  be  on  the  winning  side.  Hence  the 
feebleness  of  human  ties  today  among  the  higher 
peoples  of  the  earth,  and  the  insecurity  of  peace 
among  the  peoples  of  the  w^orld.  The  ally  of  to- 
day becomes  the  enemy  of  tomorrow,  and  the 
friend  of  the  past  becomes  the  foe  of  the  present. 
This  great  facility  we  have  for  reversing  our  na- 
tures is  an  inheritance. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  139 

The  fighting  instinct  survives  in  all  the  higher 
peoples  of  the  earth.  It  shows  itself  in  the  fre- 
quent brawls  and  fisticuffs  of  boys,  and  in  the 
wars  of  men.  Peace  becomes  tiresome  if  it  is  too 
prolonged,  and  we  have  to  "pitch  into''  somebody 

to  get  relief. 

See  how  a  crowd  swarms  about  a  street  brawl. 
Let  two  boys  begin  to   fight,   and   see   how  the 
other  boys  gather  around  in  anticipation  of  pound- 
ing   somebody  by   proxy,   by   seeing   somebody 
pound  somebody  else.    Look  at  the  enormous  sale 
of  knives,  revolvers,  and  other  instruments   of 
death.    Does  this  show  our  civilization  or  our  sav- 
eigeryl    Even  if  a  person  has  no  idea  of  killing 
anybody  or  an^ihing,  it  rather  tickles  his  savage 
nature  to  realize  that  he  is  equipped  to  do  it.    See 
the  ignoble  crew  that  escorts  every  pugilist— par- 
asites who  feel  that  some  of  the  glory  of  his  bru- 
tality may  in  some  way  get  rubbed  off  on  them, 
and  whose  darling  hope  is  to  arrange  a  set-to  so 
that  they  may  share  the  pleasure  without  endur- 
ing the  pains.    The  first  blows  at  a  prize-fight  are 
apt  to  make  a  refined  and  sensitive  spectator  sick. 
But  if  he  sticks  thru  the  first  round  his  blood  is 
likely  to  rise  in  favor  of  one  party  or  the  other, 
and  then  he  can't  see  the  other  fellow  pounded  and 
mangled  enough  to  suit  him  (James). 

I  can  remember  how  strong  the  fighting  instinct 
was  among  the  men  and  boys  in  that  part  of  Mis- 
souri in  which  I  lived  as  a  boy.  A  man  or  a  boy 
with  a  strong  instinct  to  fight  and  with  a  strong 


140  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

body  to  back  it  up  was  generally  regarded  as  the 
one  that  the  other  men  and  boys  would  rather  be 
than  anybody  else.  If  a  bruiser  could  step  off  to 
one  side  at  a  gathering  and  announce  in  a  loud, 
boastful  voice  that  he  could  ^4ick''  any  one  pres- 
ent, and  nobody  dared  to  say  a  word  or  raise  a 
finger  against  him,  that  was  the  person  every  boy 
down  deep  in  his  heart  wanted  to  be  like  when  he 
grew  up. 

This  same  primitive  atmosphere  may  be  found 
today  in  certain  circles  in  even  the  greatest  cen- 
ters of  enlightenment  of  the  race— in  circles  such 
as  are  found  at  drinking  and  gambling  places. 
Drink  tends  to  cause  an  individual  to  return 
sharply  to  the  savage  type  by  dethroning  the  rea- 
son and  thus  placing  one  more  completely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  lower  instincts.  The  practice  men 
have,  and  boys  even  more  than  men,  of  using  their 
fists  in  fighting  is  a  survival  of  the  old  style  of 
fighting  which  prevailed  among  men  before  the 
invention  of  weapons.  In  fighting,  the  wolf  uses 
its  teeth,  the  buffalo  its  horns,  the  horse  its  feet, 
and  the  lion  its  paw.  Man  is  like  the  lion,  he 
strikes  with  his  paw. 

The  war  instinct  lies  pretty  close  to  the  sur- 
face in  the  natures  of  even  the  highest  peoples, 
for  it  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  stir  it  to  action 
even  in  times  of  profound  peace.  Let  the  neAvs- 
papers  print  a  few  big  black  headlines  and  let 
somebody  begin  to  blow  the  bugle  and  beat  the 
drum,  and  we  are  ready  to  leap  at  the  throat  of 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  141 

another  people  and  find  real  satisfaction  and  much 
** glory''  in  the  act.  The  sword  is  the  sjTnbol  of 
savagery,  but  it  is  still  an  attractive  object  to  the 
most  nearly  civilized  people  so  far  produced  on 
earth.  If  people  didn't  like  to  fight  pretty  well, 
they  would  not  go  to  war  and  spend  millions  in 
money  and  spill  barrels  and  barrels  of  blood  over 
a  trifle. 

During  the  recent  war  between  Spain  and  the 
United  States,  some  of  the  United  States  troops 
who  had  been  sent  to  Cuba  had  had  no  real  ex- 
perience in  fighting  until  peace  was  declared.  I 
remember  reading  in  the  newspapers  at  the  time 
a  statement  that  impressed  me  very  much.  It  said 
that  when  these  troops  were  told  that  a  treaty  had 
been  signed  *'the  boys  were  very  much  disap- 
pointed." Why?  Cuba  was  made  free  by  the 
terms  of  the  treaty,  and  the  apparent  purpose  of 
the  war  had  been  achieved.  Why,  then,  were  they 
not  satisfied?  Because  they  had  something  else  to 
satisfy  besides  the  desire  to  free  Cuba.  It  was 
the  *Svar  instinct."  If  these  men  had  had  a  few 
battles,  and  in  this  way  exercised  their  savage  in- 
stinct to  kill,  and  then  peace  had  come,  they  would 
no  doubt  have  come  home  satisfied. 

The  fighting  instinct  is  weak  in  women  and  girls 
for  the  same  reason  that  the  hunting  instinct  is 
weak  in  the  female  nature — because  it  was  the  men 
(not  the  women)  who  did  the  fighting  and  hun+ing 
during  those  vanished  ages  in  which  the  founda- 
tions of  human  nature  were  laid.    The  males  in 


142  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

many  of  the  species  of  higher  animals  do  most  of 
the  fighting.  This  is  true  in  buffaloes,  wild 
horses,  deer,  apes,  and  monkeys,  and  many  other 
animals.  A  herd  of  buffaloes  when  attacked  will 
get  the  females  and  young  in  the  center,  around 
which  the  males  will  form  a  ring  with  their  heads 
outward  to  receive  the  attack.  Men  used  to  do  the 
same  thing  in  early  times  when  attacked  by  In- 
dians on  the  plains.  They  formed  a  ring  with 
the  women  and  children  in  the  center.  The  greater 
size  aiid  strength  of  the  males  in  many  species  is 
due  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  males  have  been 
the  warriors  of  the  species. 

The  usual  state  of  early  man  was  a  state  of  war. 
Peace  was  the  exception. 

The  final  condition  of  mankind  will  be  one  of 
unbroken  peace.  War  will  ultimately  be  unthought 
of — except  as  men  read  of  it  in  history.  As  time 
passes  the  fighting  instinct  will  grow  weaker  and 
more  disreputable  and  the  humane  and  sympa- 
thetic instincts  will  grow  correspondingly  strong- 
er, and  men  will  come  at  last  to  settle  their  dif- 
ferences in  courts  of  reason  and  justice. 

We  live  today  in  an  intermediate  stage  of  devel- 
opment. Peace  is  the  prevailing  state,  but  the 
fighting  instinct  still  survives,  and  continues  to 
break  out  in  frequent  duels  between  individuals 
and  nations.  It  will  be  with  nations  as  it  has  been 
with  individuals.  Individual  men  used  to  always 
fight  out  their  differences.  There  were  no  courts 
of  justice  among  the  earliest  men.    It  is  now  un- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES 


143 


SOME  OF  THE  THINGS  IN  OUR  NATURE  THAT  WE  WOULD 
BE  BETTER  OFF  WITHOUT 


144  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

lawful  for  men  to  settle  their  differences  by  fight- 
ing. And  only  those  who  are  behind  the  times  use 
the  fighting  method.  All  higher  men  prefer  rea- 
son and  arbitration  in  courts  of  justice.  In  the 
course  of  time,  the  same  thing  will  be  true  of  na- 
tions. International  differences  will  be  settled, 
not  by  battleships  and  armed  men,  but  by  courts 
of  justice  and  arbitration  established  by  the 
nations. 

9.    The  Hunting  Instinct. 

The  lowest  savage  has  no  domesticated  plants 
nor  animals.  He  is  a  hunter.  Like  the  wild  dog 
and  wild  cat,  he  has  in  his  nature  an  instinct  urg- 
ing him  when  he  is  hungry  to  go  out  and  seek  prey. 
But  the  savage  never  hunts  for  pastime.  He  hunts 
for  a  living.  He  takes  the  lives  of  the  beings 
around  him  in  order  to  use  their  bodies  for  food 
and  clothing. 

The  higher  races  of  men  get  their  necessities  of 
life  by  agriculture,  mining,  manufacturing,  and 
the  like.  The  hunting  instinct  is  not  exercised  in 
the  ordinary  duties  of  life.  But  it  exists.  And 
on  holidays  and  vacations,  w^hen  we  are  relieved 
from  work  and  can  do  as  we  please,  we  arm  our- 
selves and  go  out  and  kill  and  kill,  until  we  are 
satisfied.  We  kill,  not  because  we  are  hungry,  but 
in  order  to  exercise  or  express  an  instinct  which 
survives  in  us  from  our  wolfish  ancestors.  We 
hunt  because  our  ancestors  were  hunters.  We  kill 
other  animals  for  the  same  reason  that  the  dog 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  145 

kills  sheep— in  obedience  to  an  urge  within  us 
which  has  survived  from  the  time  when  our  ances- 
tors were  human  wolves. 

The  hunting  instinct  is  very  strong  in  all  the 
higher  races  of  men.  It  is  especially  strong  in 
boys.  I  can  remember  how  it  was  in  my  own  case. 
There  were  few  joys  of  my  boyhood  more  wild 
and  ovenvhelming  than  the  savage  joy  of  laying 
things  low.  This  is  a  mournful  fact  to  find  in  the 
nature  of  beings  who  hold  that  the  Golden  Rule  of 
life  is  to  act  toward  others  as  you  would  have 
others  act  toward  you. 

The  hunting  instinct  is  closely  related  to  the 
fighting  instinct.  Primitive  man  made  war  on  the 
universe,  human  and  non-human  alike.  To  the 
savage,  all  those  who  did  not  belong  to  his  crowd 
and  were  not  on  his  side  were  enemies.  They  were 
to  be  used  in  one  way  or  another,  for  food,  cloth- 
ing, or  slaves,  and  if  they  were  of  no  use  they 
were  to  be  removed  anyway  as  competitors  in  the 
struggle  for  life. 

Owing  to  the  general  preference  for  peace 
among  higher  peoples  and  the  resulting  scarcity 
of  opportunities  for  killing  men,  many  men  today 
satisfy  the  fighting  or  war  instinct  by  ''hunting.'' 
War  is  not  common  enough  to  suit  their  natures. 
And,  since  they  are  deprived  of  the  privilege  of 
warring  on  others  of  their  own  kind,  they  go  on 
occasional  expeditions  against  'Hhe  animals.'' 
The  condition  of  the  warrior  is  similar  to  that  of 
the  trap-shooter,  who  bangs  away  heroically  at 


146  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

clay  pigeons  or  glass  balls,  since  the  community 
has  grown  too  civilized  to  let  him  kill  real  birds. 

The  hunting  and  fighting  instincts  coni])ine  to 
furnish  the  fascination  which  atrocity  has  for 
many  minds  even  yet.  Why  do  newspapers  teem 
with  accounts  of  murders  and  blood-lettings  of  va- 
rious kinds!  Because  people  like  to  read  about 
them.  Why  do  we  like  to  read  about  such  things  ? 
Because  our  ancestors  were  beasts  of  "grey.  The 
thirst  for  blood  is  very  old — one  of  the  oldest 
cravings  of  our  nature.  And  this  is  why  it  is  so 
slow  in  passing  away — because  it  is  so  deep-seated 
and  fundamental. 

If  the  hunting  instinct  is  not  exercised,  it  soon 
dies  out.  And  if  the  sympathetic  instinct  is  culti- 
vated by  pets  and  by  moral  teaching,  the  individ- 
ual will  in  time  lose  his  desire  to  kill.  He  will 
come  to  derive  greater  pleasure  from  the  care  and 
study  of  wild  beings  than  he  will  from  taking  their 
lives.  In  the  majority  of  higher  men  today  the 
instinct  of  sjTupathy  is  strong  enough  under  all 
ordinary  circumstances  to  keep  down  the  hunt- 
ing and  fighting  instincts.  By  practice  this  be- 
comes a  habit.  In  thousands  of  men  and  women 
the  fighting  instinct  never  gets  beyond  a  momen- 
tary feeling  of  anger,  with  some  slight  threats 
or  slight  agitations  of  the  body.  The  instinct  ex- 
ists, but  is  not  strong  enough  to  break  thru  the 
better  instincts  and  send  the  individual  charging 
on  a  mission  of  death  and  destruction. 

Many  communities  have  already  passed  laws 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  147 

forbidding  the  grosser  exercises  of  the  hunting 
and  killing  instincts.  And  more  such  laws  may  be 
expected  just  as  fast  as  men  grow  more  enlight- 
ened. The  slower  footed  members  of  a  conmmn- 
ity  are  thus  kept  in  check  by  the  more  enlightened 
members.  So-called  ^* trap-shooting,'^  which  con- 
sists in  the  massacre  of  birds  thro^^^l  from  a  trap, 
is  now  forbidden  by  law  in  the  more  advanced 
states.  One  of  the  things  that  is  going  to  brand 
us  as  barbarians,  in  the  eyes  of  the  future,  is  the 
indifference  we  show  toward  hunting  for  pleasure. 
Any  one  who  wants  to  do  so  can  arm  himself  and 
go  out  into  the  fields  and  shoot  down  birds  and 
other  inoffensive  creatures,  merely  to  satisfy  this 
old  savage  instinct,  and  there  is  only  an  occasional 
feeble  protest  against  it.  Hunting  for  pastime  is 
nothing  but  murder.  And  it  should  be  forbidden 
by  strict  laws. 

As  time  passes,  the  instinct  of  sympathy  and 
humanity  will  grow  stronger,  and  will  become 
more  and  more  dominant  in  human  nature,  and 
the  vestigial  savage  instincts  will  grow  corre- 
spondingly feebler.  The  hunter,  who  kills  for 
pastime,  is  a  connecting  link  between  the  savage, 
who  hunts  for  a  living,  and  the  civilized  man,  who 
does  not  hunt  at  all.  The  hunter,  like  the  warrior, 
will  finally  pass  away  forever. 

10.    The  Triballnstinct. 

Savages  live  in  tribes.  The  prevailing  relation 
of  one  tribe  to  another  is  that  of  ivar.    The  moral 


148  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

feelings  and  ideas  of  the  savage  are,  therefore, 
purely  tribal  in  their  extent.  The  members  of 
his  tribe  are  to  the  savage  for  the  most  part  his 
kinspeople.  They  are  the  beings  with  whom  he 
has  lived  all  his  life,  and  they  are  to  him  the  only 
real  and  important  beings  in  the  world.  All  others 
are  enemies,  to  be  attacked,  robbed,  deceived,  mur- 
dered, eaten,  or  enslaved,  as  he  chooses  or  is  able 
to  do. 

There  is  always  a  tendency  in  us  to  think  of  the 
members  of  our  own  crowd  as  more  real  and  im- 
portant than  other  beings,  and  to  consider  our 
part  of  the  world  as  the  center  and  hub  of  the 
universe.  This  is  especially  true  of  simple-mind- 
ed people.  The  bigger  and  broader  we  are  the 
less  inclined  we  are  to  be  that  way. 

I  lived  once  for  three  weeks  with  a  family  in  a 
rather  remote  part  of  southwestern  Alabama, 
about  thirty  miles  from  Mobile.  These  people 
thought  that  Mobile  was  the  most  important,  if 
not  the  largest,  city  in  the  world.  It  was  the  only 
city  they  had  ever  seen  and  the  only  one  they 
knew  anything  much  about.  One  evening,  in  the 
course  of  conversation,  I  inquired  the  population 
of  Mobile.  No  one  knew  exactly.  But  the  moth- 
er thought  that  she  had  read  somewhere  that  it 
was  about  a  million.  Later  when  I  told  them  that 
Chicago  had  more  people  in  it  than  Mobile  and 
Birmingham  and  Montgomery  and  all  the  rest  of 
Alabama  taken  together,  and  extended  as  far  as 
the  distance  from  where  we  were  to  Mobile,  and 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  149 

was  something  like  forty  times  the  size  of  Mobile, 
they  fairly  gasped  with  astonishment. 

The  Spanish  people  are  said  to  read  only  Span- 
ish newspapers  and  books,  and  to  have  very  shad- 
owy and  imperfect  notions  of  other  peoples.  They 
look  to  Madrid  as  the  center  of  the  world,  and  re- 
gard other  peoples  as  inferior  to  themselves. 

We  Americans  are  somewhat  the  same  way.  We 
look  with  a  kind  of  pity  on  the  other  nations  of 
the  earth,  many  of  whom  are  recognized  by  every- 
body but  ourselves  to  be  in  reality  superior  to  us. 
I  remember  at  the  time  of  our  World's  Fair  in 
Chicago  of  reading  an  article  in  a  Belgian  paper 
written  by  the  Belgian  representative  at  the  fair, 
in  which  it  was  mentioned  as  a  curious  fact  that 
Americans  generally  have  the  idea  that  they  are 
superior  to  other  peoples. 

The  narrowness  and  bigotry  which  have  m  all 
ages  characterized  the  feelings  and  understand- 
ings of  men,  including  the  hostility  existing  in  the 
international  relations  of  even  the  highest  socie- 
ties of  men  today  and  showing  itself  in  war  and 
preparations  for  war,  are  merely  the  survivals  in 
a  more  or  less  enlarged  state  of  the  tribal  feel- 
ings of  original  men. 

The  ancient  Greeks  divided  mankind  into  two 
classes:  Greeks  and  ^* barbarians.''  The  Greeks 
were  the  inhabitants  of  Greece,  and  the  '' barba- 
rians" occupied  the  less  centrally-located  remain- 
der of  the  world.  The  earth  was  supposed  to  be 
shield-shaped,  with  Mt.  Olympus  in  Thessaly  in  its 


150  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

exact  center.  This  mountain,  which  is  9,700  feet 
high,  was  believed  by  the  Greeks  to  be  the  highest 
mountain  in  the  world.  On  top  of  this  mountain 
the  Greek  gods  were  supposed  to  live.  The  Greeks 
believed  that  they  were  the  descendants  and  fa- 
vorites of  the  gods,  and  that  the  *' barbarians" 
were  mere  nobodies  intended  to  serve  as  conve- 
niences to  the  Greeks. 

The  ancient  Eomans  also  considered  all  non- 
Romans  as  *' barbarians'' — including  the  Greeks. 
Many  of  the  so-called  ' '  barbarians ' '  were  superior 
to  the  Romans,  but  they  were  always  treated  by 
the  Romans  with  contempt.  The  *^ barbarians" 
were  the  ^  *  agricultural  implements"  of  the  Ro- 
mans, and  the  butchers  who  killed  each  other  for 
the  pastime  of  the  Romans  on  Roman  holidays. 
A  Roman  could  take  the  life  of  his  *  ^barbarian" 
slave  as  freely  as  we  today  kill  cows. 

Moral  feeling  has  developed  very  greatly  dur- 
ing the  period  of  human  history.  Men  today  in- 
clude within  the  range  of  their  moral  obligations 
many  thousand  times  more  human  beings  than  the 
lowest  known  men  do.  This  moral  expansion  has 
been  brought  about  by  the  improved  means  of 
travel  and  communication,  by  railroads,  tele- 
graphs, telephones,  and  newspapers,  and  by  the 
growth  of  the  s^mipathetic  imagination.  When 
people  get  to  mixing  with  other  peoples,  they  find 
out  that  other  peoples  are  very  similar  to  them- 
selves.    They  are  in  this  way  led  to  put  them- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  151 

selves  in  the  place  of  other  peoples,  and  to  treat 
them  as  they  would  themselves  be  treated. 

But,  except  by  occasional  individuals  here  and 
there,  moral  consideration  is  by  men  not  extended 
in  a  serious  way  beyond  the  boundaries  of  their 
own  species.  Non-humans  are  outsiders.  They 
may  be  attacked,  beaten,  starved,  killed,  eaten,  de- 
ceived, cut  to  pieces  out  of  curiosity,  or  shot  down 
for  pastime.  *'\Vild"  animals,  that  is,  those  spe- 
cies which  are  not  in  any  way  attached  to  the 
''tribe,''  are  especially  destitute  of  all  considera- 
tions of  hmnan  justice  and  mercy.  They  are  mere 
targets  for  anyone  who  wants  to  practice  shooting. 

The  tribal  instinct  is  the  instinct  to  stand  by 
one's  group  and  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
one's  place  of  living.  It  is  the  instinct  of  partial- 
ity— the  instinct  which  prompts  one  to  say:  **My 
Country!  May  she  ever  be  right.  But  right  or 
wrong,  my  Country!"  ''Patriotism,"  as  it  is 
usually  understood,  is  an  expression  of  the  tribal 
instinct.  The  true  patriot  does  not  believe  that  his 
country  is  the  only  country  in  the  world,  nor  neces- 
sarily the  best  country ;  but  he  wants  it  to  be  a  bet- 
ter country  than  it  is,  and  he  works  to  make  it  so. 

"The  ivorld  is  my  country/'  said  Thomas 
Paine.  Such  words  come  from  men  whose  sympa- 
thies are  too  big  to  be  limited  to  any  particular 
group  of  human  beings.  Any  one  who  is  com- 
pletely recovered  from  the  tribal  instinct  does 
not  stop  even  at  the  bounds  of  his  species,  but  is 
a  brother  to  all  that  feel. 


PART  V. 

Savage    Survivals    in    Higher 

Peoples 

(Continued.) 

1.    The  Play  Instinct. 

The  play  instinct  itself  is  not  vestigial  in  higher 
peoples.  The  instinct  has  its  uses  today  the  same 
as  it  had  in  the  ages  of  savagery.  But  the  gen- 
eral form  of  play  among  higher  animals  is  ves- 
tigial. 

Play  is  nature 's  schooling.  It  is  preparation  for 
life.  The  young  of  nearly  all  the  higher  animals 
play.  And  when  they  play  they  practice  on  the 
things  they  will  do  in  actual  life  when  they  are 
older.  Young  dogs  and  wolves  scuffle  and  chase 
each  other  when  they  play,  because  in  after  life 
they  will  be  attacking  and  pursuing  other  animals 
a  great  deal  in  their  business.  A  kitten  likes  to 
play  with  a  spool  or  a  ball.  A  spool  is  a  ^  ^  mouse.  '^ 
Young  goats  and  sheep  run  and  leap  in  their  play. 
Their  schooling  (at  least  in  the  wild  life)  is  to  pre- 
pare them  for  getting  away  from  the  flesh-eating 
animals  which  later  will  chase  them.  Fishes  play 
by  darting  and  dipping,  and  monkeys  by  swinging 
and  rollicking  in  the  trees. 

When  we  play  we  go  to  school — to  the  oldest 
school  in  this  world — to  a  school  which  existed 
long  before   there   were   any   school-houses   or 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES 


153 


school-madams  in  the  world,  even  long  before 
there  were  any  human  beings  on  the  earth.  The 
wild  goats  went  to  school  on  the  mountains  and 
the  wild  cats  in  the  woods  for  thousands  and 
thousands  of  years  before  the  alphabet  and  the 
spelling  book  were  ever  thought  of. 

But  human  plays  are  nearly  all  haftles.  They 
are  preparation  for  a  life  of  fighting  and  war.  The 
modern  world  is  largely  co-operative.    The  ideals 


"NATURE'S  SCHOOLING' 


of  higher  men  are  the  ideals  of  peace.  But  our 
plays  still  retain  their  ancient  forms.  "We  still 
learn  our  lessons  of  life  in  the  school  of  the  sav- 
age. We  practice  for  a  life  left  behind,  rather 
than  for  the  actual  life  we  are  to  lead.  A  game  of 
football  or  baseball  or  cricket  is  a  mimic  battle 
between  two  tribes. 

The  young  goat  leaps  a  great  deal  in  its  play. 
It  is  developing  strength  and  accuracy  to  leap 
from  rock  to  rock.  The  young  wild  goat  will  have 
a  great  deal  of  running  and  leaping  to  do  in  later 


154  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

years,  when  the  hungry  months  and  fleet  limbs  of 
the  wolves  are  on  its  track.  And  it  is  very  im- 
portant for  it  to  be  very  diligent  in  its  studies, 
and  learn  well  the  lessons  of  fleetness  and  far- 
leaping. 

But  the  domesticated  goat  is  a  lowlander.  It 
will  probably  never  see  a  mountain  nor  a  wolf. 
But  the  children  of  these  lowlanders  continue  to 
practice  in  their  play  for  the  wild  mountain  life 
gone  by,  just  as  the  children  of  higher  men  con- 
tinue to  prepare  themselves  in  their  plays  for  the 
vanished  life  of  the  savage. 

These  savage  forms  of  play  are  beneficial  indi- 
rectly in  building  up  the  body  and  in  developing 
ingenuity  and  shrewdness.  But  the  reason  why 
we  use  in  our  plays  the  forms  of  running  and 
fighting  instead  of  computing  and  co-operating — 
the  reason  why  our  plays  are  arranged  to  give  us 
practice  in  doivning  people  instead  of  helping  them 
up — is  because  the  play  instinct  has  never  been 
modernized. 

The  play  instinct  in  boys  takes  a  different  form 
from  what  it  does  in  girls,  for  the  same  reason 
that  the  play-forms  of  goats  and  wolves  are  dif- 
ferent. They  practice  for  different  ends.  A  boy 
likes  to  ride  a  stick-horse  and  play  ball  and  fight ; 
a  girl  likes  her  dolls  and  her  play-houses. 

2.    The  Imitative  Instinct. 

This  is  the  instinct  which  causes  us  to  be  in- 
clined to  do  as  others  do — the  urge  to  copy  others 


IN  HIGHEK  PEOPLES  155 

— ^in  manners,  dress,  speech,  walk,  belief,  occupa- 
tion, etc. 

The  tendency  to  do  as  others  do  is  much  strong- 
er in  higher  peoples  than  it  needs  to  be.  We  often 
imitate  others  in  spite  of  ourselves,  even  to  our 
disadvantage,  in  obedience  to  an  urge  which  sur- 
vives in  us  from  the  past. 

In  all  animals  that  live  in  groups  or  societies, 
that  is,  in  gregarious  animals,  the  conduct  of  each 
individual  is  determined  largely  by  the  conduct 
of  the  rest  of  the  group.  There  is  a  certain  uni- 
formity in  the  conduct  of  the  members  of  the 
group.  If  some  of  the  members  do  a  certain  thing, 
there  is  a  tendency  in  the  rest  to  do  the  same 
thing. 

In  a  school  of  fishes,  if  some  of  them  dart  away, 
the  whole  school  will  do  the  same  thing  without 
thinking.  It  is  the  same  way  with  birds.  They 
are  each  geared  to  do  what  the  rest  do,  and  they 
do  it  without  thinking — often,  it  seems,  in  spite 
of  their  thinking.  Once  in  a  while  when  a  flock  of 
birds  fly  up,  there  may  be  one  or  two  with  origin- 
ality enough  to  remain.  But  this  is  generally  the 
result  of  repeated  alarms  of  the  same  kind,  and 
the  ones  that  refuse  to  fly  are  the  ones  with  more 
sense  and  strength  of  mind  than  the  rest.  Expe- 
rience in  this  case  modifies  the  original  instinct. 

Children  are  highly  imitative.  They  are  always 
copying  those  around  them,  especially  those  who 
strike  their  fancy  or  stand  high  in  some  way.  The 
child  will  is  not  only  weak  but  untrained.    It  is 


156  SAVAGE  SUEIWALS 

largely  composed  of  pure  impulses.  It  is  incapa- 
ble of  driving  the  individual  in  a  definite  and  pre- 
determined direction.  It  is  wobbly  and  haphaz- 
ard. The  intelligence  of  the  child  is  also  unde- 
veloped. It  can't  think.  It  believes  whatever  it 
is  told.  I  have  often  noticed,  when  I  have  been  out 
walking  with  children,  how  much  they  were  in- 
clined to  cough  or  to  expectorate  when  I  did,  to 
walk  with  their  hands  behind  them  when  I  did,  to 
call  out  when  I  did,  to  adopt  immediately  any 
opinion  I  expressed;  in  short,  to  reproduce  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  every  way  the  copy  I  set  for 
them.  And  I  can  recall  myself  how  as  a  boy  I 
used  to  be  everlastingly  trying  to  shape  myself 
in  accordance  with  those  I  from  time  to  time  took 
a  fancy  to. 

The  savage  is  in  many  ways  a  child.  He  has  the 
same  untrained  will  as  the  child,  the  same  un- 
steadiness, the  same  tendency  to  be  ruled  by  the 
impulses  that  rise  wdthin  him  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment, the  same  lack  of  experience,  the  same  men- 
tal weakness,  and  the  same  dependence  on  others 
for  cues  as  to  what  to  do  and  think  in  life.  Sav- 
ages dress  like  each  other,  build  their  huts  like 
each  other,  worship  in  the  same  way,  and  bow  to 
the  same  customs  and  traditions. 

Savages  are  natural  mimics.  They  are  able  to 
imitate  perfectly  the  sounds  of  other  animals,  and 
to  repeat  a  sentence  word  for  word  that  is  spoken 
to  them,  mimicking  the  manner  and  voice  of  the 
speaker.    There  is  a  tendency  in  the  nature  of  sav- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  157 

ages  to  repeat  a  question  that  is  asked  them,  in- 
stead of  giving  the  answer.  While  savages  are 
excellent  mimics,  they  bungle  greatly  if  anything 
is  left  to  their  intelligence. 

Fashions  are  exhibitions  of  the  imitative  in- 
stinct. Women  are  much  more  inclined  to  imi- 
tate each  other  than  men  are,  because  they  have, 
on  the  whole,  more  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
child  psychology. 

There  are  fashions  in  ideas  just  as  there  are 
fashions  in  dress.  If  nearly  everybody  in  a  com- 
munity believes  in  a  certain  way,  it  is  almost  as 
hard  for  any  one  of  us  to  think  differently  from 
what  the  rest  do  as  it  is  for  a  bird  not  to  fly  up 
when  the  rest  do. 

Independence,  self-reliance,  and  originality  are 
opposed  to  the  imitative  instinct  and  tend  to 
weaken  and  displace  it.  These  qualities  indicate 
strength  and  maturity,  just  as  the  tendency  to  im- 
itate others  indicates  weakness  and  inferiority. 
**The  eccentricity  of  genius'^  is  a  common  expres- 
sion of  the  fact  that  persons  of  extraordinary 
originality  are  disposed  to  act  in  ways  that  are 
unlike  those  of  ordinary  people.  I  remember  once 
of  hearing  Prof.  Lester  F.  Ward,  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, say  that  he  came  very  nearly  being 
mobbed  one  warm  day  in  September  when  he 
walked  down  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  Washington, 
D.  C,  with  a  straw  hat  on.  It  was  the  custom  to 
put  aside  straw  hats  the  first  of  September,  and 
the  small  boys  and  small-bore  adults  who  gar- 


158  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

nislied  Pennsylvania  Avenue  that  late-summer 
afternoon  didn't  purpose  to  allow  even  a  philoso- 
pher to  be  comfortable,  if  by  so  doing  he  violated 
the  sacred  usage  of  the  tribe  regarding  straw 
hats. 

It  is  often  surprising  to  persons  of  progressive 
tendencies  that  men  are  so  fixed  and  helpless  that 
they  go  along  year  after  year  and  age  after  age 
in  the  same  old  paths  of  prejudice,  without  ever 
being  able  to  see  other  and  better  ways  of  looking 
at  things.  Reforms  always  move  up-hill.  Con- 
verting people  to  new  ideas  is  like  wearing  away 
stone. 

Mental  evolution  has  not  proceeded  far  as  yet. 
Human  reason  (what  there  is  of  it)  has  grown  out 
of  animal  instinct.  Originality  is  so  rare  that  it 
is  almost  discreditable.  The  foundations  of  hu- 
man thinking  are  still  largely  instinctive. 

Progress  is  not  natural.  We  are  geared  to  go 
round  and  round.  The  reformer  should  not  ex- 
pect too  much.  We  are  only  as  far  along  as  we 
are.  It  is  the  nature  of  granite  to  be  hard.  And 
it  is  the  nature  of  man  to  be  mechanical. 

No  wonder  we  have  such  high  regard  for  the 
past!  No  wonder  we  shake  our  heads  at  new 
ideas!  No  wonder  we  burn  our  geniuses  at  the 
stake!  Considering  the  kind  of  beings  we  have 
been  made  out  of,  it  is  surprising  that  we  are  not 
worse  than  we  are. 

Imitation  will  not  always  be  stronger  than  rea- 
son, but  it  is  today. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  159 

3.    The  Instinct  of  Indolence. 

Another  survival  from  primitive  times  is  the 
loafing  instinct,  laziness,  the  disinclination  to  ex- 
pend large  or  sustained  amounts  of  energy. 
Higher  peoples  put  forth  an  immense  amount  of 
energy — in  contending  with  each  other  in  war  and 
in  overcoming  and  controlling  the  forces  of  nature 
along  the  various  lines  of  human  industry. 

But  our  bodies  do  not  generate  energy  in  suffi- 
cient abundance  for  us  to  regard  labor  as  a  bless- 
ing. We  don't  work,  as  a  rule,  because  we  would 
rather  work  than  not.  We  work  because  we  would 
rather  work  than  starve.  Labor  is  a  sort  of  neces- 
sary evil.  We  endure  it  because  it  is  not  so  bad 
as  some  other  things  we  would  have  to  undergo 
if  we  didn't  work.  To  labor  as  men  do  in  pro- 
ducing civilization — in  producing  the  food,  houses, 
machinery,  and  luxuries  of  modern  peoples — is 
not  natural  in  the  present  stage  of  development  of 
the  human  macliine.  It  is  a  strained  and  artificial 
expenditure.  This  is  shown  by  our  fondness  for 
holidays,  by  our  constant  search  for  labor-saving 
machines,  and  by  the  fact  that  we  are  all  the  time 
looking  forward  to  a  Golden  Age  in  our  lives  when 
we  can  lead  a  life  of  leisure.  We  generally  classi- 
fy toil  with  trouble  and  tears — ^^dth  the  evil  things 
of  life,  not  with  the  good  things.  The  Happy 
Places  that  men  dream  of  for  themselves  after 
death  are  invariabfy  places  where  there  is  not 
much  work  to  do. 

The  instinct  of  indolence  is  a  survival  from 


160  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

primitive  men.  The  savage  is  not  an  energetic 
animal.  His  bodily  machine  produces  a  rather 
small  amount  of  energy — merely  the  energy  re- 
quired for  occasional  hunting  and  war  expeditions 
and  for  the  creation  of  his  rude  weapons,  boats, 
huts,  etc.  The  life  of  the  savage  is  a  simple,  in- 
dolent, hand-to-mouth  existence,  demanding  few 
necessities  and  no  luxuries.  The  savage  doesn't 
use  toothbrushes,  and  hence  does  not  have  to 
make  them — nor  easy-chairs,  nor  books,  nor  rail- 
roads, nor  plum  pudding,  nor  silks,  nor  automo- 
biles, nor  any  one  of  the  ten  thousand  other  things 
that  the  higher  races  have  got  into  the  habit  of  con- 
sidering necessary  for  a  full,  rounded  existence. 
The  savage  eats  wild  fruits  instead  of  chocolate 
creams,  and  walks  instead  of  taking  a  Pullman. 

So-called  civilized  peoples  are  always  surprised, 
when  they  come  in  contact  with  primitive  peoples, 
to  find  how  indolent  they  are.  They  call  them 
lazy  and  good-for-nothing,  and  assume  that  the 
savage  is  lazy  rather  as  a  matter  of  choice.  Lazi- 
ness is  merely  the  state  of  being  without  energy. 
It  is  not  a  disease,  nor  an  evidence  of  moral  degra- 
dation. In  a  sense  it  is  the  natural  condition  of 
men,  while  industry  is  the  derived  state.  The  sav- 
age does  not  like  to  work  because  work  is  painful 
to  him.  He  has  not  the  apparatus  to  put  forth 
prolonged  exertion.  Many- primitive  peoples  can 
not  be  induced  to  do  any  kind  of  sustained  labor 
unless  they  are  driven  either  by  the  hunger  or  the 
sex  impulse. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  161 

The  native  Australians  are  said  to  be  **  incapa- 
ble of  anything  like  persevering  labor,  the  reward 
for  which  is  in  the  future.''  The  savage  lives  in 
the  present.  And  he  is  unwilling  to  put  forth  ex- 
ertions whose  fruits  are  removed  even  a  few  weeks 
in  time.  A  traveler  calls  the  Hottentots  of  South 
Africa  *Hhe  laziest  people  under  the  sun.''  Of 
some  of  the  native  tribes  of  India  it  is  said  that 
they  have  not  only  a  distaste  for  labor,  but  a  con- 
tempt for  it,  and  will  starve  rather  than  work. 
Many  tribes  of  American  Indians,  when  cut  off 
from  tlieir  hunting  life,  quickly  disappeared,  be- 
cause they  were  incapable  of  maintaining  them- 
selves by  labor,  as  the  higher  races  do.  Burton 
says  of  the  Dakota  Indians:  **The  warrior  con- 
siders the  chase  his  share  of  the  curse  of  labor. 
He  is  so  lazy  that  he  will  not  rise  to  saddle  or  un- 
saddle his  pony.  He  would  rather  die  than  em- 
ploy himself  in  useful  industry. ' ' 

Higher  peoples  are  a  great  improvement  over 
savages  in  the  amount  of  energy  they  are  able  to 
produce.  But  the}^  have  not  yet  developed  suffi- 
ciently in  energy-producing  power  to  enjoy  the 
amount  of  work  they  are  ordinarily  called  upon 
to  do. 

In  the  better  times  to  come  labor  will  not  be 
looked  upon  as  something  to  be  avoided  if  at  all 
possible  to  do  so.  It  will  be  natural  and  pleasur- 
able. Laziness  will  pass  away — just  as  cruelty 
and  killing  will  pass  away.  The  human  body  will 
grow  more  and  more  dynamic   (energy-produc- 


162 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


ing)  with  the  passing  of  the  centuries,  and  the 
present  haphazard  system  of  assigning  men  and 
women  to  their  occupations  will  give  way  to  a  plan 
by  which  each  person  will  do  what  he  likes  to  do 
and  is  best  fitted  to  do. 

I  don't  suppose  the  bee  dreads  work.    It  has  in 
full  measure  the  energy  which  it  needs  in  its  busi- 


"THE  BEE  DOES  NOT  DREAD 
WORK" 


ness,  and  all  it  has  to  do  is  to  direct  its  energies 
in  the  direction  in  which  they  should  go.  Some 
time  we  human  beings  will  be  as  naturally  indus- 
trious as  the  bee — unless  we  find  out  before  that 
time  that  we  don't  need  so  many  things  in  order 
to  be  happy  and  hence  don't  need  to  wear  our 
lives  out  in  making  things  to  be  happy  with. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  1G3 

4.    The  Instinct  of  Revenge. 

Eevenge  is  the  desire  in  an  individual  who  has 
been  injured  to  do  injury  in  return.  It  is  the  hun- 
ger to  hit  back.  Revenge  prompts  us  to  inflict  on 
any  one  who  has  injured  us  an  amount  of  injury 
at  least  equal  to  what  we  have  suffered.  And  if 
the  injury  we  return  is  a  little  more  than  what  we 
have  received,  our  satisfaction  is  that  much  more 
complete. 

Among  all  higher  peoples,  forgiveness  is  gen- 
erally regarded  with  real  admiration.  Forgive- 
ness is  the  passing  by  or  ignoring  of  wrongs  that 
have  been  done  to  us.  Human  nature  is  weak. 
We  do  so  many  things  without  thought  or  inten- 
tion. It  is  a  mark  of  greatness  not  to  judge  peo- 
ple too  literally.  It  was  said  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
that  his  heart  was  as  big  as  the  world,  but  that 
he  had  no  room  in  it  for  the  memory  of  a  wrong. 
A  being  who  is  immense  enough  to  realize  the 
frailties  of  human  nature  will  not  judge  men 
harshly,  but  will  look  with  an  all-pitying  tender- 
ness on  the  erring  children  of  this  world. 

AVhat  a  beautiful  mantle  Charity  is  to  throw 
over  the  misdeeds  of  men.  Charity  is  the  dispo- 
sition to  put  a  good  construction  on  men's  actions 
and  to  overlook  their  faults. 

But  charity,  forgiveness,  and  the  Lincoln-like 
spirit  of  forgetting  wrongs  are  not  in  harmony 
with  the  tendencies  which  we  commonly  find  in 
the  hearts  of  men  when  we  look  into  them.  A 
blow  arouses  a  burning  desire  to  hit  back — even 


164  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

in  those  elite  beings  who  realize  that  charity  and 
forgiveness  are  more  beautiful  than  revenge. 
Like  so  many  other  tendencies  in  our  nature, 
which  drive  us  this  way  and  that  in  spite  of  our- 
selves, this  instinct  of  revenge  is  a  survival  from 
savage  times,  when  men  lived  in  a  state  of  mili- 
tancy and  hate  and  when  the  policy  of  a-blow-f  or- 
a-blow  was  much  more  justifiable  than  now. 

The  struggle  for  life  among  primitive  beings  is 
carried  on  largely  by  fighting.  Every  fight  is  a 
succession  of  retaliations — ^bite  being  given  for 
bite  and  blow  for  blow.  These  retaliations  may 
follow  each  other  in  quick  succession,  or  they  may 
be  postponed.  A  postponed  retaliation  is  what  is 
called  revenge.  The  postponement  may  be  mere- 
ly long  enough  for  the  combatants  to  get  their 
breath,  or  it  may  be  for  days,  or  it  may  be  even 
for  years.  The  feeling  of  revenge  is,  therefore,  a 
close  relative  of  anger,  revenge  being  a  sort  of 
sustained  or  adjourned  anger. 

Among  all  primitive  peoples  the  practice  of  re- 
venge not  only  exists,  but  is  regarded  as  more  or 
less  of  a  duty.  Any  one  who  fails  to  revenge  him- 
self on  an  enemy  is  despised  as  a  coward.  If  a 
savage  should  forgive  his  enemies  or  do  good  to 
them  that  spitefully  use  him,  he  wouldn't  be  tol- 
erated very  long,  even  by  his  own  people. 

It  is  said  of  the  natives  of  Australia:  **The 
holiest  duty  a  native  is  called  on  to  perform  is 
that  of  avenging  the  death  of  his  nearest  relatives. 
Until  he  has  fulfilled  this  task,  he  is  constantly 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  165 

taunted  by  the  old  women ;  if  he  is  married,  his 
wives  quit  him;  if  he  is  unmarried,  not  a  single 
young  woman  will  speak  to  him ;  his  mother  con- 
stantly laments  that  she  has  given  birth  to  a  son 
so  craven;  and  his  father  treats  him  with  re- 
proaches and  contempt. ' ' 

The  Kukis,  an  Asiatic  tribe,  are  even  more  fa- 
natical. "Like  all  savage  peoples,  the  Kukis  are 
of  a  most  revengeful  nature.  Blood  must  always 
be  shed  for  blood.  If  a  man  is  killed  by  the  acci- 
dental fall  of  a  tree,  his  relatives  assemble  and 
reduce  it  to  chips.'' 

As  a  general  rule  among  primitive  peoples,  the 
injury  of  one  member  of  a  tribe  by  another  is  not 
a  matter  of  public  concern.  It  is  a  matter  to  be 
settled  by  the  two  individuals  concerned,  or  by 
their  families.  The  chief  of  the  tribe  takes  ac- 
count of  those  offenses  only  which  concern  the  in- 
terests of  the  community  generally.  The  aveng- 
ing of  private  injuries  is  left  to  the  individual. 

It  is  said  of  the  Indians  of  the  Caribbean  is- 
lands: *'Tlie  administration  of  justice  is  not  ex- 
ercised by  any  magistrate  or  judge ;  but  he  who 
thinks  himself  injured  gets  such  satisfaction  from 
the  offender  as  his  passion  dictates  or  his  strength 
permits  him  to  obtain.  The  public  does  not  con- 
cern itself  at  all  with  the  punishment  of  criminals. 
And  if  any  one  suffers  an  injury  or  an  insult  and 
does  not  revenge  himself  for  it,  he  is  slighted  by 
all  the  rest." 

Among  the  North  American  Indians  generally 


166  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

if  a  man  were  murdered  the  relatives  of  the  mur- 
dered  man  were  the  only  ones  who  had  the  right 
to  do  anything  about  it.  They  usually  came  to- 
gether at  such  a  time  and  consulted  about  the 
matter,  and  decided  what  punishment  or  revenge 
should  be  inflicted  on  the  murderer.  The  rulers 
of  the  tribe  had  nothing  to  say  or  do  in  the  matter. 

In  ancient  Greece  there  were  no  officers  whose 
duty  it  was  to  prosecute  criminals.  *^ Indeed," 
says  Lubbock,  ^4t  seems  that  the  purpose  of 
courts  of  justice  was  at  first  not  so  much  to  pun- 
ish offenders  as  to  restrain  the  fury  of  the  aveng- 
ers.'^ 

The  right  of  revenge  has  been  gradually  lim- 
ited with  the  passing  of  the  centuries.  Laws  have 
been  passed  from  time  to  time  prescribing  in 
what  cases  the  right  should  or  should  not  be  exer- 
cised, and  the  extent  to  which  punishment  should 
be  inflicted.  Today,  among  all  higher  peoples, 
courts  of  justice  have  been  established  where  any 
one  who  is  injured  by  another  can  go  and  make 
his  complaint,  and  receive  satisfaction  thru  the 
decrees  of  a  judge.  This  is,  at  least,  the  theory 
of  courts,  altho  in  practice  courts  are  not  always 
just.  The  judge  is  generally  assisted  in  making 
his  decisions  by  a  jury  who  listen  to  the  evidence 
on  both  sides  and  then  give  their  verdict.  In- 
dividuals are  not  authorized  to  ^Hake  the  law  into 
their  own  hands." 

There  are  many  vestigial  survivals  among 
higher  peoples  of  the  old  primitive  practice  of  al- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  167 

lowing  individuals  to  settle  their  differences  them- 
selves. The  duel  is  one  of  these.  The  vendetta  is 
another.  The  vendetta  is  a  private  blood-feud  in 
which  a  family  seeks  to  avenge  an  injury  to  one 
of  its  members  by  injuring  the  offender  or  his 
family  in  return.  This  half-savage  form  of  so- 
called  ** justice"  prevails  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and 
Corsica,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  under  the 
name  of  * 'feuds,"  in  the  mountainous  parts  of 
Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  other  southerly  states. 

The  instinct  of  revenge,  which  we  find  in  our 
natures  and  which  we  see  manifested  even  in  the 
decrees  of  courts  of  justice  and  in  the  theories  of 
punishment  of  all  higher  peoples,  is  a  vestigial 
survival  from  the  natures  of  our  savage  ancestors. 
It  had  its  origin  in  those  warlike  times  of  early 
man  when  every  individual  was  compelled  to  fight 
and  to  inflict  injury-for-injury  in  order  to  main- 
tain himself  in  the  world.  We  continue  to  feel 
this  instinct  today  and  allow  ourselves  to  act  upon 
it,  even  tho  our  moral  ideals  prompt  us  to  be 
patient  and  forgiving  and  charitable,  because  the 
machinery  of  our  nature  is  so  old  and  has  been 
going  round  and  round  so  long  in  a  certain  way 
that  we  can't  stop  it. 

Our  natures  are  not  modernized.  And  one  rea- 
son why  we  are  not  modernized  is  because  we  do 
not  realize  that  we  are  so  largely  out-of-date. 
Many  instincts  of  our  nature  are  adapted  to  a 
state  of  the  world  that  has  passed  away.  We  have 
many  promptings  within  us  that  we  do  not  need. 


168  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

We  have  within  us  many  impulses  that  have  no 
business  to  be  there.  And  the  purpose  of  these 
lessons  is  to  teach  yon  the  existence  of  these  im- 
pulses, and  that  it  is  your  duty  as  civilized  be- 
ings to  crush  them.  These  impulses  are  the 
*^ beasts"  of  our  nature,  and  contend  constantly 
with  our  better  impulses  for  mastery.  They  are 
older  and  more  fundamental  and  often  more  po^v- 
erful  than  our  better  impulses,  and  drive  us  to  do 
things  in  spite  of  our  better  selves.  But  it  is  of 
great  advantage  to  us  in  this  struggle  to  under- 
stand the  origin  and  nature  and  the  dishonorable 
character  of  the  forces  with  which  we  contend. 

5.    The  Selfish  Instinct. 

Selfishness  is  regard  for  oneself — partiality  to- 
ward that  part  of  the  universe  which  is  bounded 
by  one's  own  skin.  It  is  the  general  nature  of 
men  to  disregard  the  Golden  Rule — ^to  treat  them- 
selves more  considerately  than  they  do  others. 
The  Golden  Rule  commands  us  to  have  the  same 
interest  in  others  and  the  same  enthusiasm  for 
the  well-being  and  prosperity  of  others  as  we  have 
for  ourselves.  But  our  machinery  is  not  built  for 
this  kind  of  conduct.  It  is  merely  another  one  of 
those  many  inconveniences  which  we  find  in  our 
natures  resulting  from  our  lowly,  animal  origin. 

Selfishness  may  consist  simply  of  regard  for 
oneself,  but  with  regard  for  self  is  usually  asso- 
ciated a  disposition  to  do  injuries  to  others. 

Selfishness  is  a  general  term.    It  includes  such 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  169 

qualities  as  cruelty,  hate,  intolerance,  rudeness, 
unldndness,  injustice,  narrowness,  and  the  like. 
Selfishness  is  often  called  Egoism,  from  the  Latin 
word  Ego,  which  means  /. 

The  opposite  of  selfishness  (or  Egoism)  is  Al- 
truism, which  means  regard  for  others.  Altruism 
shows  itself  in  such  qualities  as  kindness,  s>^n- 
pathy,  charity,  forgiveness,  love,  pity,  public 
spirit,  fraternity,  courtesy,  generosity,  patience, 
justice,  and  the  like. 

In  the  ideal  hmnan  being  there  is  the  same 
amount  of  regard  for  others  as  there  is  for  one- 
self, and  the  same  amount  of  regard  for  self  as 
for  others.  There  is  a  balance  of  Egoism  and  Al- 
truism. The  Ideal  Man  obeys  the  Golden  Rule. 
He  treats  others  with  the  same  regard  as  he 
would  if  they  were  a  part  of  himself. 

The  over-amount  of  selfishness  in  human  nature 
is  the  one  great  misfortune  of  mankind,  for  It 
leads  to  nearly  all  the  wrongs  that  men  inflict  upon 
each  other.  But  it  is  not  simply  a  human  misfor- 
tune. The  same  condition  exists  in  the  natures  of 
nearly  all  animals.  Every^vhere  on  earth,  from  the 
dwellers  in  the  deeps  to  the  feathered  spirits  of 
the  sky,  we  find  individuals  seeking  their  own  sat- 
isfactions and  their  own  ends  in  disregard  of  the 
ends  and  satisfactions  that  others  are  seeking. 
Hence,  the  universal  war,  and  hence  the  war-like 
natures  found  everyAvhere  in  the  world.  The 
planet  is  steeped  in  selfishness  and  inhumanity. 

But  we  higher  beings  of  the  earth  have  found 


170  SAVAGE  SUBVIVALS 

out  that  might  is  not  necessarily  right.  We  are 
learning  that  it  is  better  to  co-operate  than  to  go 
on  wasting  our  energies  fighting  each  other.  We 
believe  it  is  better  to  make  a  treaty  of  agreement, 
by  which  each  is  allowed  a  fair  share  of  the  enjoy- 
ments and  privileges  of  the  world,  than  it  is  for 
each  to  continue  to  try  to  have  his  way  and  to  get 
everything  for  himself.  And  the  Golden  Rule — 
Act  toward  others  as  you  would  act  toward  a  part 
of  yourself — represents  this  Great  Treaty  of 
Peace  which  the  most  nearly  civilized  men  are  in 
the  act  of  agreeing  to. 

The  over-regard  for  ourselves,  which  we  find  in 
our  natures,  is,  therefore,  another  survival  from 
the  dark  ages  of  savagery  and  animality  out  of 
which  we  higher  peoples  have  come.  We  higher 
peoples  are  trying  to  live  lives  of  peace  and  co- 
operation, but  we  find  it  very  hard  to  do  so  and 
we  are  at  best  only  partially  successful,  because 
we  have  left  in  us  so  much  of  the  machinery  of 
savages  and  beasts. 

6.    Other  Vestigial  Instincts. 

There  is  one  thing  that  should  be  very  vividly 
realized  in  order  to  understand  why  it  is  that 
there  are  so  many  instincts  left  over  from  the 
savage  that  are  not  needed  by  us  higher  peoples — 
in  other  words,  in  order  to  understand  why  it  is 
that  there  are  so  many  things  that  were  natural 
and  proper  for  the  savage  to  do  that  are  regarded 
by  us  higher  peoples  as  wrong. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  171 

The  savage  lives  as  a  member  of  a  tribe  com- 
posed commonly  of  a  few  hmidred  individuals. 
The  world,  to  the  savage,  is  the  world  in  which 
he  lives  and  moves — the  world  which  he  feels, 
hears,  tastes,  and  sees.  It  is  the  only  world  he 
knows  anything  about.  To  the  savage,  the  horizon 
is  the  boundary  of  the  universe.  Beings  beyond 
his  tribe  are  outside  of  his  world.  They  belong  to 
an  entirely  different  order  of  beings  from  him  and 
his  people,  and  he  assumes  an  entirely  different 
attitude  toward  them.  Thev  are  not  of  kin  to  him, 
speak  a  different  language,  and  have  strange  cus- 
toms and  superstitions.  How  could  they  be  in  any 
way  related  to  him?  They  are  his  enemies — 
vague,  villainous  beings  \vho  appear  to  him  only 
in  battle.  His  chief  occupation  is  to  wage  war 
against  them,  to  plunder  them,  deceive  them,  and 
make  slaves  of  them.  And  his  keenest  gratifica- 
tion is  felt  in  getting  the  better  of  them  in  one  way 
or  another  and  in  laying  them  low  in  battle. 

The  attitude  of  the  savage  is  an  attitude  of  hate 
and  hostility  to  all  who  do  not  belong  to  his  par- 
ticular crowd.  Everybody  outside  of  his  tribe  is 
his  lawful  prey.  He  is  at  liberty  to  do  anything  in 
his  power  to  anyone  outside  his  tribe.  His  ethical 
attitude  toward  *^ outsiders''  is  almost  the  reverse 
of  his  attitude  toward  the  members  of  his  band. 

Stealing  is  not  immoral  to  the  savage,  if  it  is 
carried  on  against  those  outside  his  little  group. 
It  is  a  means  of  distinction.    The  same  is  true  of 


172  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

lying  and  deceiving  and  cheating — and  even  of 
murdering. 

Higher  peoples,  on  the  other  hand,  form  vast 
communities  called  states,  comprising  many  mil- 
lions of  human  beings.  These  states  often  cover 
territory  that  is  continental  in  extent.  Moreover, 
they  are  all  united,  by  treaties,  by  commerce,  and 
by  ties  of  sympathy  and  understanding,  into  one 
vast,  world-wide  confederacy. 

The  savage  is  a  citizen  of  a  tribe.  His  fellow- 
beings  consist  of  a  few  hundred  individuals.  All 
the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  his 
enemies.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  are  citizens  of 
the  Civilized  World.  We  have  really  no  enemies 
in  the  old  sense.  Nobody  is  our  legitimate  prey. 
But  we  have  surviving  in  our  natures  the  instincts 
to  steal  and  lie  and  cheat  and  deceive,  and  to  treat 
others  generally  as  if  they  tvere  our  prey. 

This  metamorphosis  of  the  world  in  general 
from  objects  of  prey  to  felloiv-citizens  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly marvelous  one,  and  must  be  realized  in 
order  to  understand  the  man}^  errant  tendencies 
which  we  find  in  our  natures  today. 

Courage  and  loyalty  are  the  two  chief  virtues  of 
savages.  Loyalty  is  the  tendency  to  stick  to  an  in- 
dividual or  to  one's  group  thru  thick  and  thin. 
And  so  long  as  mankind  was  divided  into  small, 
warring  factions  (tribes),  this  quality  of  loyalty 
was  a  much-lauded  one.  But  the  breaking  up  of 
tribes,  and  their  fusion  into  great  masses  of  men 
called  nations,  and  the  further  unifying  of  na- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  173 

tions  thru  international  travel,  commerce,  and 
treaties  have  reduced  very  much  the  occasion  for 
loyalty — at  least,  the  occasion  for  local  loyalty. 

The  old  savage  style  of  loyalty  is  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  spirit  shown  by  certain  groups  of  lawless 
and  near-lawless  individuals  who  engage  in 
wrong-doing  and  then  stand  by  each  other  as  the 
only  way  of  enabling  the  gang  to  escape  detection. 
A  member  of  a  gang  of  criminals  who  *^ squeals" 
or  ** snitches"  on  the  rest  is,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  gang,  an  evil  individual — a  criminal.  But 
from  the  higher  standpoint  of  society,  he  is  an  up- 
right citizen.    He  does  just  what  he  should  do. 

The  *' loyalty"  often  shown  by  children  in  re- 
fusing to  ^'snitch"  on  one  of  their  number  who  is 
guilty  of  wrong-doing  is  the  same  kind  of  *  Roy- 
alty" exactly  as  that  which  is  so  highly  praised 
by  law-breakers  everywhere.  Any  one  who  aids  in 
concealing  crime  or  disorder  by  refusing  or  neg- 
lecting to  give  information  regarding  such  wrong- 
doing assists  in  making  wrong-doing  easier,  and 
is,  hence,  to  a  certain  extent  responsible  for  it. 
Boys  and  girls  who  shield  one  of  their  number  in 
disorder  cannot  escape  a  share  of  the  guilt.  They 
are  acting  under  a  mistaken  sense  of  loyalty. 
They  are  promoting  disorder.  The  obligation  of 
friendship  does  not  extend  to  the  protection  of  a 
friend  in  crime.  There  would  never  be  any  ap- 
prehension of  criminals  if  everybody  who  knew  of 
the  crime  were  ^4oyal"  to  the  criminal.  ^ 


174  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

7.    Some  Newer  Instincts. 

Human  nature  is  a  growth — an  accumulation. 
The  elements  which  compose  it  have  been  added 
one  after  another.  Some  of  these  elements  are 
very  old  and  fundamental,  while  others  are  more 
recent.  As  has  been  already  shown,  many  of  the 
instincts  which  we  find  in  ourselves  are  pre-human 
in  origin,  and  existed  in  the  world  millions  and 
millions  of  years  ago,  before  there  were  any  hu- 
man beings  in  it.  We  human  beings  obtained 
these  instincts  by  inheritance  from  our  animal  an- 
cestors, just  as  we  obtained  our  backbone  and 
other  features  of  our  body.  We  human  beings  did 
not  invent  the  backbone.  We  inherited  it  from 
the  lower  mammals,  who  inherited  it  from  the  rep- 
tiles, who  inherited  it  from  the  frogs,  who  inher- 
ited it  from  the  fishes,  who  originated  it.  In  the 
same  way  the  instincts  to  kill  and  fight  and  play 
and  be  afraid  and  to  love  young  were  developed 
in  our  pre-human  ancestors  millions  of  years  be- 
fore human  beings  were  ever  dreamed  of. 

Many  savage  tribes  have  no  words  for  sym- 
pathy,  justice,  chastity,  temperance,  humanity, 
modesty,  gratitude,  forgiveness,  or  remorse,  show- 
ing that  they  have  no  ideas,  or,  at  least,  no  well- 
defined  ideas,  of  these  virtues.  The  earliest  men, 
of  course,  must  have  been  much  like  the  non- 
human  animals  from  whom  they  developed,  acting 
more  or  less  blindly,  and  without  the  understand- 
ing, forethought,  and  trust  which  we  think  of  as 
characterizing  the  conduct  of  humans. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  175 

Modesty  is  an  instinct  causing  ns  to  conceal 
certain  parts  of  the  body — among  higher  peoples 
the  most  of  the  body  excepting  the  hands  and 
head.  It  is  certain  that  non-hmnan  beings  do  not 
have  this  instinct.  Neither  do  very  young  chil- 
dren. There  are  also  millions  of  primitive  men 
living  in  tropical  countries  who  wear  no  clothes  at 
all,  and  hence  have  no  feelings  of  modesty. 

Modesty  is  largely  a  matter  of  habit.  Turkish 
women  cover  even  their  faces.  Modesty  has  orig- 
inated during  the  human  era  of  development,  as  a 
result  of  the  delicacy  and  restraint  of  the  sexes 
toward  each  other. 

Romantic  love,  the  delicate  and  prolonged  woo- 
ings  of  courtship,  are  unknown  to  the  savage. 
The  love  affairs  of  primitive  peoples  are  more 
like  those  of  other  animals.  They  are  wanting  in 
that  tenderness,  beauty,  and  romance  which  char- 
acterize the  courtships  of  higher  peoples. 

Cleanliness  is  another  instinct  which  has  grown 
up  since  savage  times.  Primitive  peoples  have  no 
aversion  for  dirt.  They  are  naturally  filthy.  In 
higher  peoples  the  instinct  of  cleanliness  affects 
not  only  their  persons,  but  extends  to  their  homes, 
streets,  fields,  places  of  business,  etc.  Cleanliness 
is  a  feature  of  modern  art.  The  artist  is  the  most 
likely  person  to  be  neat  and  clean  about  himself, 
his  room,  his  home,  and  his  world. 

Gratitude  is  an  instinct  which  is  weak  even 
among  higher  peoples,  and  it  is  almost  absent  in 
savages.    Of  the  Eskimos  it  is  said:    **They  give 


176  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

away  nothing  themselves  without  expecting  to  re- 
ceive as  much  in  return,  and,  being  unable  to  im- 
agine any  other  conduct,  are  naturally  very  defi- 
cient in  gratitude.'^  Giving,  if  it  is  pure,  is  an 
act  of  the  heart.  It  is  generosity.  It  is  an  ex- 
pression of  sympathy  and  love.  There  is  no  ex- 
pectation of  anything  in  return.  But  among 
primitive  peoples  giving  is  mere  trading. 

Owing  to  the  operation  of  the  Law  of  Biogen- 
esis, which  compels  each  being  in  its  individual 
development  to  pass  thru  the  stages  of  its  an- 
cestors, the  children  among  the  higher  races  of 
mankind  have  (like  savages)  very  little  or  no  feel- 
ing of  gratitude.  A  child  will  receive  any  number 
of  favors  or  the  benefits  of  any  number  of  sacri- 
fices without  feeling  a  particle  of  thankfulness  for 
them.  For  a  long  time  after  it  learns  to  say 
*Hhank  you''  without  having  to  be  prompted  by 
its  mother,  the  child  has  no  feeling  of  thankful- 
ness corresponding  with  the  words.  It  is  not  sin- 
cere. Boys  and  girls  even  of  considerable  years 
will  accept  the  most  valuable  courtesies  from  oth- 
ers, and  then  forget  all  about  these  courtesies  in  a 
few  weeks  or  months.  Even  in  adults  it  is  a  very 
common  thing  for  courtesies  to  be  appreciated  so 
feebly  as  to  be  forgotten  in  a  few  weeks.  And 
nearly  all  giving  is  still  adulterated  a  great  deal 
with  the  trading  spirit.    It  is  not  pure. 

Some  forms  of  sympatJiy  are  very  old.  The 
sympathy  of  a  mother  for  her  child  is  pre- 
human.   We  find  it  well  developed  in  birds,  bears, 


IN  HIGHEE  PEOPLES  172 

monkeys,   dogs,  whales,  mice,   and  many  othei 
non-hiimans. 

Even  sympathy  between  adults  begins  low 
down.  A  dog  will  lick  another  sick  dog.  Ro- 
manes had  a  dog  that  objected  to  the  whipping 
of  other  dogs,  and  to  the  use  of  the  whip  on  the 
horse  when  he  went  out  driving  with  his  master. 
Monkeys  also  have  considerable  s^mipathy  for 
each  other,  especially  in  times  of  sickness. 

Savages  have  some  sympathy  for  each  other, 
but  as  a  general  thing  the  feeling  is  weak.  This 
is  shown  by  the  not  unconmion  practice  they  have 
of  killing  off  their  old  people  in  times  of  famine. 
^ '  Old  women  no  good ;  dogs  kill  otters, ''  is  the  way 
one  savage  expressed  it.  The  ancient  Romans 
used  to  take  their  hopelessly  sick  slaves  to  an  is- 
land in  the  Tiber  and  let  them  die  of  hunger  and 
exposure. 

The  instinct  of  sympathy  in  higher  peoples  is 
much  weaker  than  many  of  the  older  instincts,  as, 
for  instance,  the  hunting  and  fighting  instincts. 
These  latter  instincts,  when  aroused,  will  over- 
come the  instinct  of  s>mipathy  completely.  Let 
the  *^ savage''  within  us  once  get  the  smell  of 
blood,  and  it  is  all  over  with  our  sj^npathies.  The 
more  recent  acquisitions  of  human  character  are 
like  tender  plants  growing  in  a  forest;  they  are 
often  choked  by  the  more  venerable  instincts  which 
overtop  them. 

The  great  growth  of  s^anpathy  in  higher  peo- 
ples is  shown  in  their  sensitiveness  to  the  wrongs 


.178  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

ai^.d  sufferings  of  other  peoples.  A  great  calamity 
in  one  part  of  a  country  or  even  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try sends  a  shudder  over  the  rest  of  the  country 
and  even  to  foreign  countries.  People  pour  out 
their  services  and  their  money  for  the  afilicted  al- 
most as  they  would  to  brothers.  It  is  beautiful. 
The  systematic  and  public  care  of  orphans,  the 
old,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  and  the  crippled  is  another 
vast  expression  of  sympathy. 

As  soon  as  we  get  far  enough  along  to  rear- 
range our  system  of  industry  so  as  to  give  every- 
body a  somewhat  equal  chance  to  live  and  enjoy 
life,  we  shall  give  another  vast  expression  to  hu- 
man sympathy;  and  a  much-needed  one.  We  co- 
operate in  producing  what  we  need,  some  of  us  do- 
ing one  thing  and  others  doing  another  thing,  but 
the  distribution  of  the  products  is  haphazard  and 
primitive.  It  is  much  as  if  we  should  all  go  to 
Work  and  make  a  bagful  of  things  that  we  need, 
everybody  working  hard  to  get  the  bag  filled,  and 
then  engaging  in  a  general  scuffle  and  fight  to  see 
who  is  to  get  what  is  in  the  bag.  The  strong  and 
the  selfish  get  more  than  they  need,  and  the  weak 
and  modest  get  little  or  nothing.  This  shows  a 
lack  of  both  sympathy  and  sense. 

Conscience  is  sometimes  called  the  *^  moral 
sense.''  It  is  that  within  us  which  assists  us  in 
recognizing  right  and  wrong.  Conscience  is  very 
weak  in  savages,  many  of  whom  have  almost  no 
ideas  of  right  and  wrong.  ** Conscience,''  says 
Burton,  **does  not  exist  in  East  Africa.    And  re- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  179 

pentance  means  merely  regret  for  missed  oppor- 
tunities for  crime.  Robber}^  and  murder  make  the 
hero,  and  the  more  atrocious  the  crime  the  greater 
the  hero. ' ' 

Darwin  calls  conscience  ^Hhe  most  noble  of  all 
the  instincts  of  man.''  It  is  the  one  instinct  which 
more  than  all  others  distinguishes  man  from  the 
other  animals.  Man  can  thru  long  cultivation  of 
his  conscience  acquire  sucli  perfect  mastery  of 
himself  that  his  desires  and  passions  will  ^-ield  in- 
stant and  perfect  obedience.  The  hungry  man 
will  not  think  of  stealing  food,  nor  will  the  injured 
man  wreak  vengeance — except  in  special  cases. 
In  the  Ideal  Man,  all  other  instincts  are  slaves  to 
the  Imperial  Instinct  of  Conscience — all  appetites 
are  dumb  ivlien  Duty  speaks. 

The  desire  for  progress,  both  individual  and 
racial,  is  lacking  in  savages.  Many  savages  are 
today  in  the  same  condition  as  when  first  discov- 
ered several  centuries  ago.  We  are  apt  to  think  of 
progress  as  a  natural  condition  of  mankind,  but 
this  is  not  true.  The  ancients  did  not  even  enter- 
tain the  idea.  And  even  today  large  parts  of 
mankind  show  no  desire  whatever  for  the  im- 
provement of  themselves,  their  customs,  or  their 
institutions.  Even  among  higher  peoples  the  re- 
former is  often  looked  upon  with  suspicion  as  a 
disturber  of  the  peace.  There  is  a  fundamental 
tendency  in  human  nature  to  stand  still,  or,  if  not 
to  stand  still,  at  least  to  go  round  and  round.  This 
tendency  is  thoroughly  dominant  in  the  savage. 


180  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

The  savage  takes  pride  in  building  his  hut  in  the 
same  way  that  his  ancestors  built  theirs,  and  in 
thinking  the  same  thoughts  that  his  ancestors 
thought  a  thousand  years  before  him.  Sir  Sam- 
uel Baker,  in  a  paper  on  ^^The  Races  of  the  Nile 
Basin,''  points  out  that  each  tribe  of  men  in  Cen- 
tral Africa  has  its  own  peculiar  style  of  hut,  and 
that  the  huts  of  various  tribes  are  as  constant  in 
their  types  as  are  the  nests  of  birds.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  their  dress,  language,  customs, 
and  religions.  The  Creek  Indians  laughed  at 
those  who  suggested  that  they  should  change  their 
long-established  customs  and  habits  of  living. 
*^  Because  same  ting  do  for  my  father,  same  ting 
do  for  me,''  say  the  Houssa  negroes.  Livingstone 
says  of  some  of  the  natives  of  Africa:  *^I  often 
presented  them  with  iron  spoons,  and  it  was  cu- 
rious to  observe  how  the  habit  of  hand-eating 
prevailed,  tho  they  were  delighted  vfith  the 
spoons.  They  would  lift  out  a  little  milk  with  the 
spoon,  but  instead  of  putting  the  milk  in  their 
mouths  with  the  spoon,  they  would  pour  it  into 
their  left  hand,  and  eat  it  out  of  that."  Tylor 
says  that  the  Dyaks  (natives  of  the  island  of  Bor- 
neo) were  so  opposed  to  any  changes  in  their 
usages  that  they  made  it  a  finable  offense  for  any 
one  to  chop  wood  in  the  European  fashion.  It  is 
only  sojne  races  that  are  able  to  flow  and  to  re- 
gard flowing  as  an  appropriate  activity  for  hu- 
man beings ;  and  only  some  men  of  these  special 
races. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  181 

There  is  no  instinct  in  human  nature  that  has 
made  greater  gro^\i;h  during  the  human  period 
than  the  instinct  of  liumanity.  Humanity  means 
brotherhood — the  spirit  of  the  family.  Men  are 
brothers.  And  they  should  have  for  each  other 
that  fellow-feeling,  that  feeling  of  SATnpathy  and 
oneness,  that  brothers  have.  We  have  all  come 
from  the  same  great  ^vomb  of  life,  we  have  the 
same  susceptibilities  of  pleasure  and  pain,  the 
same  frailties,  and  are  advancing  all  of  us  to  the 
same  ultimate  destiny.  We  should  take  each 
other  by  the  hand.  We  should  be  comrades.  This 
is  a  gray  world.  There  is  enough  sorrow  in  it, 
even  tho  we  cease  to  scourge  each  other — the  sor- 
row of  floods,  famines,  fires,  earthquakes,  storms, 
diseases,  and  death.  We  should  trust  each  other, 
and  love  each  other,  and  s^mipathize  with  and  help 
each  other,  and  be  patient  and  forgiving.  For  do 
we  not  know  how  divine  these  things  are  when 
they  are  done  to  us  ? 

The  following  is  from  Darwin : 

**As  man  advances  in  civilization  and  small 
tribes  are  united  into  larger  communities,  the 
simplest  reason  should  tell  each  individual  that  he 
ought  to  extend  his  sympathies  to  all  the  members 
of  the  nation,  tho  personally  unknown  to  him. 
This  point  being  once  reached,  there  is  only  an 
artificial  barrier  to  prevent  his  sympathies  ex- 
tending to  the  men  of  all  nations.  But,  unfortun- 
ately, experience  shows  us  that,  if  such  men  are 
separated  from  us  by  great  differences  in  appear- 


182 


SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 


ance  or  habits,  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  we 
look  upon  them  as  our  fellow-creatures. 

^  ^  Sympathy  beyond  the  bounds  of  man,  that  is, 
humanity  to  other  animals,  seems  to  be  one  of  the 
latest  acquisitions.  It  is  apparently  unfelt  by 
savages,  except  toward  their  pets.  How  little  the 
old  Eomans  knew  of  it  is  shown  by  their  revolting 
gladiatorial  exhibitions.  The  very  idea  of  hu- 
manity to  animals,  as  far  as  I  could  observe,  was 


"THE  SPIRIT  OF  HUMANITY" 


new  to  most  of  the  Gauchos  of  the  Pampas.  This 
virtue,  one  of  the  noblest  with  which  man  is  en- 
dowed, seems  to  arise  from  our  sympathies  be- 
coming more  tender  and  more  widely  diffused,  un- 
til they  are  extended  to  all  sentient  beings.  As 
soon  as  this  virtue  is  practiced  and  honored  by  a 
few,  it  spreads,  thru  example  and  instruction,  to 
the  young,  and  eventually  becomes  incorporated 
in  public  opinion. '  ^ 

Humanitarianism  is  the  name  commonly  given 
to  that  higher  humanity  which  embraces  the  whole 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  183 

animal  kingdom,  or  as  much  of  it  as  gives  evi- 
dence of  feeling.  Hmnanitarianism  is  the  final 
goal  of  hmnan  s^Tinpathy.  Starting  with  the  tribe 
(or  the  family,  or  even  the  individual),  the  in- 
stinct of  sympathy  has  spread  from  tribe  to  con- 
federacy, from  confederacy  to  nation,  from  nation 
to  race,  and  from  race  to  species.  It  is  constantly 
growing  and  deepening  among  the  sub-divisions 
of  the  human  species  and  is  as  constantly  extend- 
ing to  the  non-human  populations  of  the  earth. 
It  is  destined  finally  to  reach  the  remotest  shores 
of  the  Great  Ocean  of  Feeling.  Wherever  there 
are  bodies  that  bleed  and  souls  that  mourn,  there 
human  s>Tnpathy  should  go,  angel-like,  with  its 
sweetness  and  healing — down  even  to  those  lowly 
and  overlooked  but  suffering-and-enjoying  civil- 
izations beneath  our  feet,  in  the  grasses  and 
grounds  and  the  crystal  deeps. 
8.    Vestigial  Customs  and  Institutions. 

Men  are  like  sheep.  They  do  things  and  think 
things,  not  because  the  things  are  useful  and  true, 
but  because  they  have  been  done  and  thought  by 
others  who  have  gone  before.  They  imitate  their 
ancestors.  Each  generation  of  men  jumps  over 
the  same  hurdles  that  preceding  generations  have 
jumped  over,  altho  in  most  cases  the  usefulness  of 
the  activities,  if  they  ever  had  any  in  the  first 
place,  has  long  ago  passed  away.  It  is  the  call  of 
the  past — the  oldest  and  most  hopeless  of  human 
slaveries. 

Civilization  is  a  train.    It  drags  along  with  it  a 


184  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

great  many  things  that  belong  rightfully  in  the 
past — not  only  vestigial  instincts,  but  also  ves- 
tigial customs,  beliefs,  ideals,  and  institutions. 

Customs  are  much  like  instincts.  They  are  es- 
tablished ways  of  acting  which  are  observed  by 
all  the  members  of  a  tribe  or  nation.  They  may 
be  called  tribal  or  national  habits. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  savage,  living 
as  he  does  in  the  world  of  nature,  has  the  ad- 
vantage over  the  more  civilized  of  being  able  to 
do  as  he  pleases.  There  cannot  be  a  greater  mis- 
take. The  savage  is  nowhere  free.  All  over  the 
world  the  daily  life  of  savages  is  hedged  about  by 
customs  and  rules,  which  are  none  the  less  strin- 
gent because  unwritten.  ^^  Fashion  in  the  distant 
wilds  of  Africa,''  says  a  waiter,  ^^ tortures  and 
harasses  poor  humanity  as  much  as  in  the  great 
prison  of  civilization.'' 

The  Australian  savage  cannot  even  do  as  he 
likes  with  what  he  kills  when  hunting,  but  must  al- 
lot it  according  to  strict  rules,  one  leg  to  one  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  one  to  another,  the  breast  to  a 
third,  and  so  on. 

Among  the  Mbayas  of  South  America  ^Hhe  mar- 
ried women  are  not  allowed  to  eat  beef  nor  mon- 
key, and  the  girls  are  forbidden  to  partake  of  any 
meat  or  fish  that  is  more  than  a  foot  long. ' ' 

Among  the  Samoyedes,  women  are  not  per- 
mitted to  eat  the  head  of  the  reindeer  nor  to  pass 
across  the  hut  behind  the  fire. 

Public  business  among  uncivilized  and  semi- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES 


185 


civilized  peoples  is  conducted  with  tedious  formal- 
ities and  a  strict  observance  of  the  forms  which 
have  been  handed  down  to  them.  Any  changes  in 
the  established  ways  of  doing  things  are  strongly 
opposed. 

Here,  in  this  natural  conservatism  of  the  savage, 
in  his  tendency  to  cling  to  established  rules  and 
customs,  we  find  the  explanation  of  the  reverence 
which  higher  peoples  have  for  whatever  has  come 


"FOLLOWING  THE  LEADER" 


do^\Ti  to  them  from  the  past.  We  have  not  yet  re- 
covered from  the  tendency  of  the  savage  to  stand 
still. 

The  practice  higher  peoples  have  of  imitating 
each  other  in  their  dress  is  stupid  enough  to  have 
come  right  out  of  the  heart  of  Africa.  "Why  do 
women  wear  barn-door  hats  and  tubular  skirts 
and  make  themselves  generally  clownish  in  their 
dress?  Merely  because  other  women  do  it.  They 
haven't  enough  taste  and  originality  to  dress  be- 


186  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

comingly,  unless  everybody  else  does  so.  If  the 
time  ever  comes  when  women  develop  a  real  sense 
of  art,  they  will  refuse  to  dress  like  freaks  merely 
because  others  do. 

The  word  ^MecimaP'  is  an  adjective  derived 
from  the  noun  decern,  a  latin  word  meaning  ten. 
The  Decimal  S^^stem  is  the  name  of  our  system  of 
numbers,  which  is  so  arranged  that  ten  of  a  lower 
order  make  one  of  the  next  higher  order — ten 
units  make  one  ten,  ten  tens  a  hundred,  ten  hun- 
dreds a  thousand,  and  so  on. 

Why  do  we  have  a  system  of  tensf  Why  not  a 
system  of  eights,  or  fives,  or  twelves!  Do  we  have 
the  ten-system  because  it  is  the  best  system?  Or 
has  it  been  fastened  upon  mankind  by  some  cir- 
cumstance somewhere  in  the  past!  We  grow  up 
using  the  ten-system ;  we  never  know  of  any  other 
system ;  and  the  most  of  us  are  so  mechanical  that 
it  never  occurs  to  us  that  there  could  possibly  be 
any  other  system. 

The  decimal  system  of  numbers  is  not  the  best 
system.  It  was  adopted  by  mankind  as  a  result 
of  certain  circumstances  far  back  in  the  early 
stages  of  human  development. 

Before  there  was  any  science  of  mathematics — 
before  geometry,  trigonometry,  algebra,  or  even 
arithmetic  existed — men  counted  on  their  fingers. 
They  couldn't  count  in  their  minds,  and  they  had 
not  yet  invented  figures  and  other  mathematical 
signs.  The  fact  that  mathematics  had  its  begin- 
nings on  the  fingers  and  that  man  has  ten  fingers 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  187 

are  the  circumstances  which  produced  and  fas- 
tened upon  us  for  probably  all  time  our  numerical 
system  of  tens. 

If  man  had  had  four  fingers  on  each  hand  in- 
stead of  five,  we  would  today  probably  have  a  sys- 
tem of  eights  instead  of  a  system  of  tens.  And  a 
system  of  eights  would  have  been  just  as  good  as 
a  system  of  tens,  or  perhaps  a  little  better.  And, 
if  man  had  had  six  fingers  on  each  hand  instead  of 
five,  there  is  no  doubt  but  we  would  today  have  a 
system  of  hvelves,  a  duodecimal  system,  which 
would  have  been  a  considerably  better  system 
than  the  one  we  have. 

A  system  of  twelves  would  be  a  much  more  flex- 
ible system  than  a  system  of  tens.  Ten  is  divisible 
by  2  and  5  only,  while  twelve  is  divisible  by  2,  3,  4, 
and  6.  Counting  in  a  decimal  system  must  be 
either  by  ones,  twos,  fives,  or  tens,  or  by  some 
multiple  of  ten;  but  in  a  duodecimal  system  we 
could  count  by  ones,  twos,  threes,  fours,  sixes, 
twelves,  or  multiples  of  twelve. 

When  we  speak  of  ''three-score  and  ten,''  we 
are  counting  by  the  old  vestigial  finger-method, 
each  score  standing  for  20,  or,  as  a  Mexican  or 
Carib  Indian  would  put  it,  for  ''one  man,"  that  is, 
for  the  number  of  fingers  and  toes  that  one  man 
has. 

Greek  and  Latin  are  vestigial  languages— lan- 
guages which  have  gone  out  of  use,  but  which  have 
not  yet  gone  out  of  existence. 

Silent  letters  are  the  vestigial  parts  of  words. 


188  SAVAGE  SUEVIVALS 

In  general  all  silent  letters  were  once  sounded. 
But  thru  changes  in  the  nationality  of  words 
or  in  the  habits  of  those  using  them,  many  letters 
have  fallen  into  disuse. 

Take  the  word  hniglit.  The  h  and  gJi  are  silent. 
But  our  ancestors  pronounced  them,  as  the  Ger- 
mans do  today  their  word  knecM.  So  in  the 
French  word  temps,  meaning  ^Hime.'^  The  p  and 
s  are  silent.  But  the  Komans,  from  whom  the 
French  got  this  word,  used  ail  the  letters,  for  they 
spelled  and  pronounced  it  tempiis. 

We  happen  to  be  living  at  a  time  when  a  good 
many  English  words  (too  few,  however)  are  being 
rationalized  in  their  spelling.  Why  should  we  add 
ugh  to  the  word  tho,  making  the  word  just  twice  as 
long  as  it  need  be  ?  Why  should  we  not  spell  thru 
as  we  pronounce  it  I  Or,  if  we  insist  on  adding  the 
unused  ogh.  Why  not  throw  in  ty  or  ski  for  good 
measure. 

Life  is  too  short  to  spend  half  of  it  in  learning 
to  spell.  We  should  have  a  letter  for  every  sound 
and  a  sound  for  every  letter.  Then  any  one  in  a 
few  hours  or  days  could  learn  to  spell  any  word  in 
the  language,  whether  he  had  ever  heard  the  word 
before  or  not.  If  we  cease  to  use  any  certain 
sound  in  a  word,  we  should  cease  to  use  in  the 
written  word  the  letter  that  stands  for  that  sound. 

The  twenty-six  letters  comprising  our  alphabet 
were  originally  pictures.  The  forms  which  these 
letters  now  have  are  much-modified  survivals  of 
the  original  pictures  from  which  they  have  come. 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  189 

Letters  have  been  worn  into  their  present  peculiar 
forms  by  the  various  peoples  thru  whose  hands 
they  have  come  to  us.  The  English  got  their 
alphabet  from  the  Komans,  who  obtained  it  from 
the  Greeks.  The  Greeks  received  it  from  the 
Phenicians,  and  the  Phenicians  from  the  papyrus 
writers  of  Egypt,  who  in  turn  received  it  from 
those  picture  writers  who  carved  their  curious  lit- 
erature on  the  granite  tombs  of  the  Nile  in  the  re- 
motest da^^^l  of  human  history. 

A,  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet,  is  a  figure 
which  has  been  eroded  as  the  result  of  long  wear 
and  tear,  from  the  picture  of  an  eagle ;  B  was  orig- 
inally the  picture  of  a  crane;  C  represents  a 
throne ;  D  a  hand ;  F  an  asp ;  H  a  sieve ;  K  a  bowl ; 
L  a  lioness ;  M  an  owl ;  N  a  water-line ;  R  a  mouth ; 
S  a  garden;  T  a  lassoo;  X  a  chairback;  and  Z  a 
duck. 

The  earliest  form  of  human  marriage  was  mar- 
riage by  capture.  The  man  stole  the  woman,  gen- 
erally from  another  tribe,  and  carried  her  away 
by  force. 

So  deeply  rooted  is  the  connection  between  force 
and  marriage  that  the  pretense  of  obtaining  a 
bride  by  force  was  observed  as  a  form  long  after 
all  necessity  for  it  had  ceased.  Gradually  it  came 
to  be  a  mere  ceremony. 

In  the  ceremonies  which  surround  the  marriage 
event  among  higher  peoples  there  are  many  ves- 
tigial survivals  from  the  ancient  form  of  mar- 
riage.    The   wedding-ring  is   the   old  token   of 


190  SAVAGE  SURVIVALS 

bondage  which  was  accepted  by  woman  when  she 
gave  her  pledge  of  slavery  and  devotion.  The 
coining  of  the  groom  with  his  aids  to  the  marriage 
is  a  figurative  marauding  expedition.  The  honey- 
moon is  the  abduction.  And  the  missile-throwing 
indulged  in  by  friends  and  relatives  on  the  de- 
parture of  the  wedded  couple  is  a  good-humored 
counterfeit  of  the  armed  protest  made  by  rel- 
atives of  old  when  a  bride-snatcher  came  among 
them. 

In  all  countries  where  there  is  a  rapid  change 
going  on  from  the  monarchial  to  the  democratic 
form  of  government,  there  are  always  a  great 
many  vestigial  features  of  the  old  monarchial  or- 
der of  things  surviving  in  the  new  order.  The 
English  House  of  Lords  was  anciently  the  main 
law-making  body  of  England,  aside  from  the  king. 
But  its  power  has  gradually  passed  over  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  more  truly  represents 
the  people.  The  House  of  Lords  survives  thru  the 
momentum  which  has  come  down  from  a  time  in 
the  past  when  it  was  useful.  The  same  thing  is 
true  of  the  English  king.  The  king  originally  had 
almost  unlimited  power  and  authority.  But  he  has 
been  hedged  about  and  deprived  of  one  prerog- 
ative after  another,  first  by  the  House  of  Lords 
and  later  by  the  House  of  Commons,  until  he  has 
become  the  vermiform  appendix  of  the  English 
government. 

Our  competitive  system  of  industry  is  a  ves- 
tigial institution.    It  is  a  survival  from  the  mill- 


IN  HIGHER  PEOPLES  191 

tant  ages  of  the  past.  It  is  a  form  of  warfare. 
It  is  unsuited  to  a  world  of  co-operation  and  divi- 
sion of  labor.  Higher  men  are  beings  of  sym- 
pathy. They  have  the  natures  to  pnt  themselves 
in  the  places  of  others.  Their  ideal  is  the  Golden 
Rule.  But  our  system  of  industry  compels  us  to 
fight  each  other.  It  is  a  heart-hardener.  It  is  a 
system  of  cannibalism.  Instead  of  instilling  the 
feeling  of  brotherhood,  it  compels  us  to  eat  each 
other.  It  will  pass  away.  It  is  already  far  ad- 
vanced in  its  transition  to  a  system  based  on  sym- 
pathy and  systematic  co-operation. 

Everywhere  we  turn  we  find  evidence  that  the 
*^ civilization/'  so-called,  of  higher  peoples  is  a 
made-over  something,  and  that  the  antecedent 
thing  from  which  it  has  been  derived  is  the  **  civ- 
ilization" of  the  savage.  In  this  derived  *^  civil- 
ization'' we  find  everyAvhere  features  of  the  old, 
antecedent,  and  disappearing  order  of  things — 
customs,  laws,  beliefs,  languages,  ideals,  and  insti- 
utions — which  are  now  no  longer  functional,  but 
which  survive  in  a  more  or  less  dwindling  condi- 
tion in  obedience  to  the  same  laws  as  those  which 
perpetuate  the  vermiform  appendix  and  the  hairy 
covering  of  our  bodies  and  the  hunting  and  fight- 
ing instincts  of  our  natures.  It  is  of  vast  advan- 
tage to  us  to  be  able  to  recognize  these  vestigial 
features,  in  order  that  we  may  more  skilfully  dis- 
entangle ourselves  from  them  and  at  the  same 
time  definitely  turn  our  backs  on  them  in  our  ef- 
forts to  advance  toward  a  Better  World. 


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